


After Asura

by SeeEmRunning



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Permanent Injury, Post-Anime, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-23 02:51:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8311054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeeEmRunning/pseuds/SeeEmRunning
Summary: After the seven kids defeat Asura, they make their way back to the Academy steps. The meisters still need to make their weapons Death Weapons, and they're not too far from graduation.Please note: despite the tags, this story isn't all that dark.





	1. Prologue: Recovery! Will All Be Well?

Kid had his skateboard, and with careful alignment, the seven of them flew up to the doors of the school. When they touched down, most of them fell over. 

Death Scythe sprinted through the doors, red hair flying behind him. “Maka!” he screamed.

“Papa,” she muttered, mouth flashing in a grin. He dropped to his knees beside her and grabbed her in a hug. She hugged him back, and then - knowing she was safe, that he’d protect her with his life even if he couldn’t keep a simple promise - she slept.

Lord Death was barely a step behind him. He grabbed Kid, Liz, and Patti in a giant bear hug, murmuring to them too quiet for anyone else to hear. Kid hugged back weakly and followed his weapons into unconsciousness.

Then Miss Marie, who grabbed Black Star and Tsubaki and Soul and dragged them into a hug, her death-scythe strength allowing her to keep them standing when they fell. Stein grabbed Black Star and slung him over a shoulder. Crona stood by helplessly, not knowing what to do.

Then the rest of the school, who poured out of the doors and stared in disbelief at the seven children who had killed a Kishin and were currently sleeping on the front stoop of their school, flaming ruins behind them.

“Let’s get them to the dispensary,” Lord Death said, his irritatingly high-pitched voice gone, replaced with his natural tone. He must be more exhausted than he’d let on before.

Ox came forward and grabbed Tsubaki bridal-style. Miss Marie picked up Black Star. Death Scythe carried Maka on his hip, the way he had when she was still in diapers, before she glared whenever he came near.

Lord Death announced, “Anyone else who has been hurt, no matter how minor you think it is, report to the dispensary at once.”

Nobody left, but when they started to bring the seven kids through, they cleared a path for them.

“Are they going to be all right?” Death Scythe nearly begged Stein.

“They’ll be fine,” he said. “They’re just exhausted. There are a few internal injuries, some broken bones, but they’ll recover. Crona, you should still be in bed. Go.”

Crona settled into a cot next to Maka. Stein had kept that one clear for just that reason.

Stein looked at Lord Death. “You should rest, too,” he said.

Lord Death settled into a chair by Kid’s bedside. “I’m resting,” he said. Death Scythe took the chair by Maka’s bed.

“How’s your head?” Marie muttered to Stein.

“Clear as it can be,” he said.

“Will you be okay if I leave for a few hours?”

“I’ll be fine, Marie. Do what you need to do. Be careful.”

“I’ll take Azusa. We’ll be fine.” She opened a curtain that hid a cot. “Rachel? You wanna go see your mommy and daddy?”

“Uh-huh,” a small voice said.

Marie picked up the little girl. “I’ll be back,” she told Stein, and left.

The seven of them slept for three days. On the first night, Death Scythe and Stein got a rather nasty surprise when Maka grew scythe blades and started trying to fight the two of them in her sleep. Getting her to snap out of it took them almost an hour, Death Scythe in his weapon form to guard against her and Stein doing his level best not to hurt her until Marie could get her hands on her and heal her mind.

“They fought a Kishin,” Marie said. “You have to expect some nightmares.”

Indeed, Maka wasn’t the only one who surprised them like that. Stein looked down to light a cigarette, and when he looked back up, Liz and Patti had changed into their weapon forms. Tsubaki flashed from one form to another for nearly three hours. Kid’s soul sporadically appeared like he was trying to resonate with someone else. Soul sat straight up, hands moving like he was playing a piano. Black Star slept like a log, which, given the antics of the rest of his group, may have been the most surprising thing. Lord Death couldn’t be in the dispensary for too long - he was called away on other matters - but Death Scythe left only to shower. There were three other weapons Lord Death could use if needed; as far as he was concerned, his place was with his daughter.

The rest of the school was not sleeping. Repairs got underway. A reasonable facsimile of classes resumed two days after the battle. As always with teenagers, the rumor mill churned out multiple versions of events, all very different from each other, and the teachers were asked repeatedly what had happened until Sid finally told them to knock it off because the people who had been there were still unconscious.

Stein wouldn’t leave the dispensary, so Class Crescent Moon was without a teacher until a samurai named Mifune appeared at the doors, claiming Tsubaki and Black Star had told him to apply for a teacher’s position. His only stipulation was that the witch Angela would be protected, and Lord Death granted the request - he’d been wondering for a long time if witches were naturally evil or if it was simply because they were surrounded by evil witches. A toddler witch would give him ample opportunity to find out.

That’s not to say Mifune’s appointment was without controversy. Sid in particular was unhappy, and took every opportunity to make it known. He wasn’t mad about the witch, but about employing a former enemy. Other students and teachers were unhappy about allowing a witch into the school after Medusa had tricked them all and awoken Asura.

And yet, Lord Death’s decision was final. He was too busy returning Death City to its former location to hear most of the grumbling, anyway.

Shun was waiting for the city to return. She’d helped to destroy one of the madness relay stations, and she had heard through the mirrors that her daughter had gone in to fight the Kishin. She was not pleased. She spent a good twenty minutes yelling at Lord Death for allowing her Maka to be in harm’s way before she allowed herself to be steered toward the dispensary.

Liz was the first to wake. She jumped out of bed, rounded Kid, and grabbed her sister. “Patti? Patti!” She glanced at the bed holding Kid. “Kid!”

“They’re asleep,” Stein said. “They’ll wake when they’re ready.”

“Just asleep? That’s it?” she asked anxiously.

“Just asleep,” Death Scythe said, rubbing his face.

Patti yawned and stretched. “Heya, sis,” she said.

“Liz? Patti?” Kid muttered.

“Right here, Kid,” Liz said. “Glad you’re all right.”

“What about everyone else?”

“They’re still resting,” Stein said.

It was to this scene that Shun stepped into the ward. “Hello, Stein,” she said coldly. “They let you back in here after what you did?”

“It was a long time ago, Shun,” Stein said. “I’ve changed.”

“He has,” Death Scythe put in.

“Spirit?” Shun said, surprised.

“Hi, Shun. Good to see you again.”

“Wish I could say the same.”

Maka stirred. Death Scythe squeezed her hand, tense and preparing for another fight, but instead she squinted and mumbled, “Soul?”

“He’s asleep,” he said.

“Papa?”

“That’s me.”

She did something surprising, then: she bolted upright, grabbed him around his shoulders, and burst into tears. He whispered a low and soothing litany of nonsense “It’s okay” and “You’re all right” and “Papa’s here”, rubbing her back until she stopped trembling.

“Hello, Maka,” Shun said.

Maka sniffed, rubbed her eyes, and looked around. “Mama!” she said, her face lighting up.

Shun hugged her when Death Scythe let go. “Oh, Maka,” she sighed into her hair. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”

“What about Soul?” Maka asked. “He’s just sleeping, right? He’s okay?”

“He’s fine,” Stein said. “Everyone came out fine. Black Star, Soul, and Tsubaki are still asleep. You, Kid, Liz, and Patti are up.”

Maka pushed away her mother and got out of bed. “Soul,” she said, padding over to his bed. Kid, Liz, and Patti were grouped together on one of the beds. Black Star and Tsubaki slept beside them, arms thrown out as though they were reaching for each other even in sleep. Soul’s face was slack and peaceful, a small dribble of drool at the corner of his mouth. She half-smiled and looked at his soul, which was pulsing gently with light. The demon inside him was quiet, then, not pulling him down into the madness of black blood. 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Soul asked.

Maka jumped. The sight of his soul dissolved. “I - um - are you okay?”

“Fine. You?”

“Fine.”

“Good.” They grinned at each other in relief. Soul eased himself up to sitting. “How’s your hand?”

Maka looked down, realizing for the first time it was bandaged. “Oh. Stein, why is my hand covered in gauze?”

“It was burned,” he said. “It looked like a soul wavelength hit you, from the inside, somehow.”

Maka grimaced. “Oh. Right.”

Soul cackled. “If that’s the worst you’re hurt, we’re lucky.”

“We are,” Maka said fervently. “When Kishin Hunter didn’t work, I thought we were done for.”

Someone behind her choked. “You used Kishin Hunter?” Shun asked. “That’s a Reaper move!”

Soul and Maka looked at each other. “It didn’t work,” Maka repeated. “He said he wasn’t evil, it was just that I was afraid of his madness. And maybe...maybe he wasn’t evil, if Kishin Hunter and Genie Hunter didn’t work, maybe he could have been saved.”

“Don’t start that,” Stein said. “Maybes and could haves never helped anyone.”

“He’s right, Maka,” Death Scythe said. “If he hadn’t been destroyed, we’d all be dead.”

Black Star and Tsubaki awoke together. They looked at each other, confirming they were both all right, and then sat up in sync.

“They rise!” Stein joked. “How are you two feeling?”

“Fine,” Tsubaki murmured.

“I feel great!” Black Star yelled. “I could go kill another Kishin right now, let’s go.”

“Let’s not,” Kid said. “We barely survived Asura.”

“How about you tell us what happened,” Stein said. “We’ll send someone for Lord Death so you only have to go over it once.”

Maka sat next to Soul and grabbed his hand tightly. Tsubaki and Black Star joined them, then Liz, Patti, and Kid. The adults pulled up chairs in front of the bed they were all squeezed on.

Liz noticed something very important then. “Why are we all in pajamas?”

“Your clothes were filthy,” Stein said. “Relax. Naigus and Miss Marie changed you girls. Would you have rather woken up in dried blood and dirt?”

“No,” Tsubaki admitted. “Thank you.”

Miss Marie, Naigus, Sid, Lord Death, and Crona filed into the room. Maka cried out in happiness and launched herself off the bed, grabbing up Crona. “You’re okay!” she said, laughing in disbelief.

“So are you,” Crona said, hugging her tightly.

“Your stupid ugly faces didn’t die, then,” Ragnarok said.

Shun stared. “What the hell is that?”

“Ragnarok,” Maka said. “He’s a demon sword embedded in Crona. Crona, this is my mom.”

“Hi, Mrs. Albarn,” Crona said nervously.

“Call me Shun,” she said after a beat. “I don’t go by Albarn anymore.”

“Oh. Right.” Crona giggled nervously. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

Maka towed Crona over the bed. The six still there shifted to make room for them.

“Ahem,” Lord Death said. “Now that we’re all here, perhaps you can explain what happened.”

They looked at each other, wondering who should start.

“Kid,” Lord Death said. “Talk.”

He did, telling his father what had happened in as straightforward a way as he could manage. His voice shook when he described being impaled by the Kishin’s finger.

Black Star took over, boasting about his moves - exactly why Lord Death had avoided telling him to talk. He told Lord Death about fighting the Kishin, about Kid recovering from a fatal blow and creating a cannon that destroyed the larger Asura and returned him to his earlier form.

Soul took over, sparing Maka as long as he could, but Maka had to talk about what had happened while the others were unconscious. They all recovered in time to see her land the fatal blow.

“The only wavelength his soul didn’t have was bravery,” Maka said. “I punched him, and he laughed at me, and then the wavelength hit and he broke into pieces.”

The adults were quiet. “You used Kishin Hunter?” Lord Death asked after a moment.

“Yes.”

The dam broke. Questions poured forth, and they did their best to answer them. Crona shrank back into Maka, feeling out of place. He hadn’t faced the Kishin; all he’d done was get stabbed by his mother.

When they ran out of questions, Lord Death said, “Well. I believe promotions are in order for all of you. You are now two-star meisters and weapons. Crona, you are reinstated as a student.”

“Yes!” Ragnarok cheered. “Candy!”

“When can we go home?” Kid asked.

“Physically, you’re all doing well,” Stein said. “There’s no reason to keep you any longer.”

“I need to talk to Maka,” Death Scythe said.

“Now?” Shun asked, outraged. “She just woke up!”

“It’s important,” he argued. “You weren’t here, you didn’t see-”

“Didn’t see what?”

“Maka,” he said, eyes settling on her. “Do you want to talk alone or in front of your friends?”

“Friends,” she said. Whatever was happening, they deserved to know.

The adults save Stein, Shun, and Death Scythe left. Stein waited until they were gone to say, “Spirit, is it the blades?”

“It is. Maka, while you were asleep…” He rubbed his face. “You grew blades.”

Maka stared at him. “What?”

“You have weapon blood in you,” Stein said. “It’s only just awakened, but now that it’s active, it will grow stronger.”

Soul’s grip grew crushingly tight. “What are you saying? You’re splitting us up?”

“Of course not,” Stein said. “That would be impossible, after what you’ve accomplished. But Maka, you do need to train as a scythe. Otherwise you may lose control one day and hurt someone.”

“I wouldn’t!”

“While you were asleep you tried to kill Spirit and me,” Stein said. “It took an hour to get Marie close enough to calm you.”

Maka gaped at them. “Why would I do that?”

“It was a nightmare,” Death Scythe said. “You thought you were still fighting the Kishin, and you acted.”

“But that can wait,” Shun said. “Maka, you need to finish recovering. We can talk about this later.”

“We can,” Stein agreed. “It will be soon, but it doesn’t have to be now. Go home, all of you. Eat, sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow morning for class.”

By unspoken agreement, they all went to Maka’s and Soul’s apartment that night. They slept in a pile on the couch cushions and mattresses they shoved onto the floor, Blair curled up with them in her cat form. Whenever one woke from a nightmare, the others were right there, offering comforting words and touches. When Maka’s back grew spikes in the middle of the night, Soul shook her awake and coached her through returning to human form while the others watched. In the morning, they dressed silently and returned to the Academy.

The forecourt went silent when they stepped onto it, and then whispers broke out. They did their best to ignore them and went straight to the classroom, taking their usual seats and waiting for class to begin.

“How’d you do it?” Ox Ford asked them. “How’d you beat the Kishin? Was it Genie Hunter?”

Maka shook her head. “No.”

“Then how?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“But-”

“No,” Soul said.

“Aw, come on-”

“Leave us alone,” Black Star said. “Or you’ll see _exactly_ how.”

Ox went white and spun around to face the chalkboard.

Stein wheeled himself into the classroom with twenty seconds to spare. “Good morning, everyone,” he called. “I understand Mifune has been taking this class.”

“Mifune?” Black Star said, surprised. “He’s here?”

“That means Angela is, too,” Tsubaki said.

“It does indeed,” Stein said. “I want you all to break up into your teams. I want to see how your resonance is doing.”

Once they were on the floor, Tsubaki, Liz, Patti, and Soul took their weapon forms. Standing in a circle, they all closed their eyes and connected themselves together.

“Well done, everyone,” Stein said. “Now I’m going to mix you with another group. Try to resonate with all of you together.”

Maka’s group was paired with Kilik, Ox, and Kim. Crona joined them.

“All right, let’s get this show on the road,” Black Star said, stretching out his arms. “Crona, you start, since you haven’t done this as a team before.”

Crona nodded. Ragnarok popped out from his back. A moment later, a shimmering blue-black dome appeared in Maka’s soul perception.

Maka took a breath and joined her soul to Crona’s. She’d done this once before, to pull him out of his madness and push the souls out of Ragnarok, but it had been a while and she hadn’t enjoyed it then. Now, though, his soul was in better shape, stronger and with his weapon less dominant. They linked.

Soul joined, careful to modulate his wavelength, and then Kid, Liz, and Patti. Black Star and Tsubaki finished their group.

Ox, Kilik, and Kim had formed their own group’s resonance while Maka’s group had added in Crona. “Are you ready?” Maka asked out loud.

“When you are,” Kilik answered, and their souls stretched out, touching each other for the briefest moment before it fell apart.

“Again,” Black Star said, and again they failed. It took them the better part of class to resonate all together. The other groups weren’t faring much better.

Stein dismissed them with an order to practice the mixed-group resonance until it was stable. He kept Maka back - her seven friends remained, as well - and told her, “Justin has decided to remain. He’ll be training you on being your own weapon.”

“Oh,” she said quietly. “Thanks.”

Stein nodded. “Your parents are waiting for you on the forecourt.” A smile flickered over his face. “I thought a warning was in order.”

“Thanks.” She hesitated. “How are _you?_ ”

“I’m fine. Quite recovered.” He gathered his papers from the desk. “I’ll see you all tomorrow,” he said, and pushed himself out of the room on his chair.

They left the room. Death Scythe and Shun were waiting for them, as Stein had said. “Maka,” Death Scythe said, “would you have dinner with us tonight?”

Maka hesitated. She did want to spend time with her mother, and her father - though a real jerk - was somehow comforting. At the same time, a sense of dread filled her when she thought of leaving her friends’ sides.

“You’re all welcome to come, too,” Shun said.

The knot in Maka’s chest relaxed.

“In that case,” Tsubaki said, “why don’t we go home? I’ll cook.”

Ragnarok popped out of Crona’s back and cheered, drawing laughter.


	2. Prologue: The Supplementary Lessons. Will Maka Albarn Learn Control?

The eight of them stayed the night at Black Star and Tsubaki’s apartment, again in a pile of couch cushions and mattresses, again waking each other from nightmares and calming each other down. They didn’t get much sleep. 

“Ugh,” Soul muttered, looking up the stairs that led to the Academy. “It’s too early for class.”

“No argument there,” Liz said.

“It should be eight,” Kid grumbled.

Black Star grinned, remembering Kid’s first day. “Remember when you started crying because I said class started at seven?”

Kid scowled. “It should start at eight! It’s a symmetrical number, and it’s not a prime!”

“We know, Kid,” Patti said. “It’s okay. Just focus on the stairs.” 

“Two hundred of them,” Liz added. “A multiple of eight, which is almost as good, and perfectly symmetrical.”

“Race ya!” Black Star yelled, already sprinting up.

“No fair!” Soul yelled, following him. “You got a head start!”

“I’d beat you with a delay! Nobody can beat Black Star!”

The rest of them giggled. Some things never changed.

Justin pulled Maka out of gym that morning. “We’ll have our own gym class,” he told her as he led her into the woods. “I believe Stein told you I would be working with you.”

“Yes.”

“You need to learn to control your form,” he said. “So far your scythes have only come out while you are unconscious, correct?”

“Yes.”

“You’ll need to learn how to make them come out while conscious. Most weapons do this instinctively, when they’re young. For someone as old as you to have just gained the ability is rare, and it will make things difficult. So we’re going to cheat a little bit.”

“How?”

“We’re going to resonate. I’m going to make my blades appear so you can learn the feeling. Then you’ll try. We’ll do that as many times as it takes.”

“Okay.”

Justin stopped walking. “Sit,” he said, settling onto the ground. Maka sat across from him. “Let’s begin.”

An hour later, Maka was ready to scream with frustration. No matter how many times Justin showed her how, she just couldn’t get it. She knew how it felt, like cool smoke, yet whenever she tried to use that feeling it evaporated away.

“It’s all right, Maka,” he said gently. “I told you, it’s rare to gain a weapon form so late. It’s going to take you a while. Practice on your own - we’ll continue tomorrow. Your ethics class is in ten minutes.”

In Battle Studies that afternoon, they continued resonating their souls with the new groups. It took a while for them to regain the stability they’d found the day before, and then they worked on maintaining it for longer periods of time.

“Let’s take a mission this weekend,” Black Star said to Tsubaki.

“Are you sure? We’re still…” Her voice trailed off.

“Yeah, why not? Nothing can beat me. I’ve surpassed the gods!”

“I’d like to take one, too,” Soul said to Maka. “When the Kishin’s madness spread, there are more Kishin eggs than ever.”

“All hands on deck,” Kid agreed. “Liz? Patti?”

“Are you sure you’re ready?” Liz asked him. “I mean, it’s only been a week since the Kishin.”

“I’m ready, Liz. Patti?”

“Yay!”

Liz gave in. “Fine. But no ghost ships or creepy tombs or abandoned towns!”

“Well, Maka?” Soul asked, tilting his head, and for a moment Maka’s breath caught because all she could see was the Kishin’s red light hitting him and the remembered terror in the surety that he’d been killed.

Then her rational mind caught up. She was in the Academy. They’d all survived. They’d all been promoted. Everyone was okay. Everything was okay.

“Sure,” she managed. “Let’s do it.”  
***  
They slept in a pile again, walked to the Academy together again, ignored the whispers again. Again Maka was pulled out of gym, and again she spent an hour trying to do what she was beginning to feel was impossible.

The others had Mifune for gym today, and he was relentless, pushing them to be faster, stronger, better. Angela sat in the grass in the middle of the track, coloring and singing to herself, apparently not noticing the looks most of the class sent her way.

Mifune noticed, and Black Star noticed, and Tsubaki noticed. During class Mifune added difficulty to the worst offenders, and in the locker rooms Tsubaki and Black Star made it very, very clear Angela was to be left alone with consequences more painful than the expulsion that Lord Death had promised would befall any who hurt the young witch.

“I don’t even like her,” Black Star grumbled to Tsubaki when they were leaving.

Tsubaki giggled. “That’s because she kicked your balls. The great Black Star, bested by a child.”

“You know I don’t fight kids.”

Maka rejoined them. “How’d it go?” Soul asked.

“I still don’t know what I’m doing,” she said.

“You’ll get it,” Soul said comfortably. “Most of us learn to control it when we’re babies. You’re probably overthinking it.”

“Maybe,” she said. “Anyway, I wonder what’s for lunch today?”  
***

On Friday, they examined the board. “I get the serial killer,” Black Star declared.

“I’ll take the one marked as child abuse,” Kid said.

“That leaves the kidnapper for me,” Maka said. They took down their respective papers.

“Mine says to see Stein for the information,” Kid said.

“I have to go to Sid.”

“Everything I need is right here.” Black Star smirked at them. “Come on, Tsubaki, we can have this guy wrapped up before dinner.”


	3. Black Star's First Two-Star Mission: Will THey Succeed?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the show, it was never clearly explained how they get from one place to another. Death City can't be within walking distance of everything. We've seen Soul on a motorcycle and Arachne in a car, so I pretend airplanes exist.
> 
> Parts of this chapter take place in brothels and/or include frank discussion of kink and sex. It's not smut, but it is there. The villain also uses slurs against sex workers.

Their target was in Cami, the capital city of Hachewana, which was a country near the equator that happened to be the top cacao producer in the world.

“All right,” Tsubaki said on the flight there. “So tell me what you’re thinking. How will you find him?”

“He likes to target prostitutes,” Black Star said. “Four of the nine dead chicks have all been from one brothel, so I say we start there, see if anyone knows anything.”

“If they don’t?”

“Then we go to plan B: start cracking heads until someone remembers.”

They landed in Cami not long after. They disembarked to the sight of the setting sun. Black Star asked the man behind the counter for directions to the Hung Man, and, ignoring his shocked expression and the stammer when he directed them, they made their way there.

They split up, Tsubaki talking to the ladies and Black Star showing his Academy ID and asking for the proprietor at the bar. He was ushered to a small room where the madame sat behind a wooden desk.

“No refunds,” the woman said, not looking up from what looked to be an account book.

“I’m not here for that,” Black Star said, holding out his card. “I’m from the Death Weapon Meister Academy. I’m here about the recent murders.”

The woman took his card and examined it closely. “Two stars. Remind me, that’s a student rank, is it not?”

“It can be,” Black Star said. “Most students are only one star, and granted two-star status upon graduating.” He grinned. “I was promoted before graduation, though. I’m just that awesome.”

The woman sighed. “My name is Josie Nohimo. You’re here about the murders, you said?”

Black Star took his ID back. “Yes. My name is Black Star. Nine women are dead, and four of them worked here. What can you tell me about them?”

“Not much, I’m afraid,” she said. “All of them told me they were taking outside jobs. I never saw them again.”

“Is it unusual for them to take outside jobs?”

“Not at all. Most of my girls do, for extra money.”

“And you allow that?”

She laughed. “If you think it’s a matter of allowing it, young man, you haven’t spent much time in the world. I don’t own them. They pay me rent, and I provide them a safe place to live and meet clients.”

“How much is rent?”

“Two hundred a week.”

“Is that standard for the area?”

“We’re two blocks from the capital. It’s dirt cheap.”

“If you were farther from the capital?”

“Then it would be expensive.”

“Did those four girls have anything in common, other than the outside jobs?”

“They all took red lighters,” she said.

“What’s a red lighter?”

She looked amused. “I suppose you _are_ too young to know the term. A green lighter is someone who wants only oral and vaginal sex. A yellow lighter wants anal sex or has a fetish that doesn’t hurt. A red lighter is someone who wants to cause pain.”

Black Star blinked. “Pain?”

“He likes to use things like whips, chains, flames. Anything that causes damage.”

“People _do_ that? On _purpose?_ ”

She laughed again. “Oh, yes. The people getting hurt enjoy it, and the people doing the hurting enjoy it.”

“That’s nuts,” he informed her.

She shrugged. “There are a great many things that make people happy you or I would consider unthinkable. Some people enjoy eating waste. Some enjoy wearing diapers. My girls know that if a customer tries to do something they’ve told him not to, all they have to do is yell or push a button and help will be there in minutes.”

Black Star blinked. “You have security, then?” he asked, bypassing the images trying to push their way into his head.

“Oh, yes. It wouldn’t be safe without security - the girls may as well be on the streets like common prostitutes.”

“Do you know who hired them for outside jobs?”

“No. They didn’t offer that information, and I didn’t ask.”

“Well...thanks,” he said. “Is there anything that might be helpful?”

“Not that I can think of. If I do think of something, how can I reach you?”

“We’ll be staying at the Dove’s Inn. Send a message and we’ll come to meet you.”

“We? Are you here with a partner?”

“Of course. My weapon, Tsubaki, is talking to some of your girls now.”

Her gaze grew sharp. “What we do is entirely legal in the city of Cami.”

Black Star frowned. “Okay.”

“There’s no reason for her to talk to them. They haven’t done anything wrong!”

“But they may know something,” Black Star said.

She visibly calmed herself. “Of course. I hadn’t thought of that. Do you think you’ll catch the killer soon?”

He grinned. “Don’t worry, Ms. Nohimo. Black Star is on the case!” He turned and left, absently expanding his soul in an attempt to find his weapon. She was outside already. He hurried to meet her.  
***  
Tsubaki eyed the girls and then adjusted her dress to show a bit more cleavage than she was really comfortable with. She could pass herself off as a new girl, try to get information that way.

A heavily-made-up woman sidled up next to her. “Give it up,” she advised. “I don’t know what you want, but you’re not one of us and you’re not a client. You may as well leave.”

Tsubaki pulled her dress closed again. “My name is Tsubaki. I’m a two-star weapon from the Death Weapon Meister Academy.”

“I’m Plumeria. Why are you here, Tsubaki from Death Weapon Meister Academy?”

“Nine women have been murdered,” she said. “Four of them lived here.”

Plumeria froze. Her chest didn’t move for a long moment, and then she grabbed Tsubaki’s arm. “Go with it,” she breathed. Tsubaki allowed her arm to be twisted up behind her back. “I said get out, you no-good cheapskate,” Plumeria yelled. “Ten morels, what kinda girls d’you take us for? Out!”

She towed Tsubaki to the door. “Tomorrow, eight in the morning, the fountain in Reese Square,” she whispered, and pushed her out the door.

Tsubaki stared at the closed door, mind whirling. Plumeria knew more than she wanted to say inside, that was the only reason she was putting Tsubaki off until tomorrow.

Black Star came out not much later. “Ms. Nohimo wasn’t happy you were talking to the women,” he informed her.

“We have a meeting tomorrow morning,” she said. “Eight in Reese Square. A woman named Plumeria knows something.”

“Well, we’re not waiting that long,” he said. “I want to fight. Let’s go find someone who knows something.”

The other four brothels yielded the same information from the owners and none from the workers. Every time Tsubaki asked a question, faces froze over in fear and the women tried to convince her that they didn’t know anything, really, honest. The owners brushed aside Black Star’s questions, and when Black Star casually mentioned that his partner was out talking to the women working there, the owners got angry and found some way to end the conversation.

“We’ve hit all the brothels,” Tsubaki said. “Everyone’s afraid.”

“Then let’s start making them talk,” Black Star said, cracking his knuckles.

“We still have the meeting with Plumeria,” Tsubaki reminded him. “Remember, we're supposed to reflect well on the Academy. If you beat people who know nothing, Lord Death will not be happy.”

Black Star scowled at her. “But we can wrap this up tonight. Besides, they don’t have to tell anyone.”

“But they will,” Tsubaki said “If the meeting with Plumeria doesn’t work out, then we can go to the police and see what they know. Hitting people who might not know what’s happening won’t help us.”

They were still bickering when they checked into the Dove’s Inn.

The next morning, they took advantage of the inn’s breakfast offerings - Black Star ate fourths of everything - and then asked the clerk for directions to Reese Square. It wasn’t far, just a half mile, and they set out at a brisk pace. The clock that dominated the capital _bong_ -ed the hour just as they spotted police blocking off the square.

They broke into a run. “What happened?” Tsubaki asked the officer at the edge.

“Nothing to see here, move along,” he recited.

They dug out their IDs. “We’re here investigating the string of murders,” Black Star said. “Has there been another?”

The officer examined their IDs suspiciously.

“They’re real!” Black Star yelled. “Is another woman dead or not?”

The officer seemed to make up his mind. “Lieutenant Gruble,” he called over his shoulder.

A woman walked up. “Yes?”

“The Academy is here.”

“About time,” she said.

“We’ve been busy,” Black Star snapped. “Is this the tenth victim or not?”

“Looks like it,” she said. “What’s so busy that they couldn’t send anyone until now?”

Tsubaki put a hand on Black Star’s shoulder. “We fought the first Kishin a week ago,” Tsubaki said. “We lost many. There are now only five teams qualified to take this case.”

“And you’re one of them?” she said. “Hmph. Fine. Whatever, I don’t care, just come in and see.”

She led them into the square. “This woman was discovered at six-fifty this morning, when a bookseller came out to sweep his stoop. No ID, just like the others, mutilated like the others, found in public like the others.”

Tsubaki stopped dead. She recognized that dress.

“That’s Plumeria,” she said. “We were coming to meet her.”

Black Star’s mouth twisted. “Let’s get some answers from Miss Nohimo.”

“Wait,” Gruble said. “You know where she lives?”

“The Hung Man,” they chorused. Tsubaki added, “She’s the fifth one from that brothel.”

Gruble’s face tightened. “I wish we could get this bastard,” she said.

Black Star knelt beside the body, examining it for anything useful. Tsubaki turned to Gruble and asked, “Is there anything about these murders that didn’t make it into the reports?”

“No,” she said. “It’s all in there.”

“Do you have any suspects?”

“I have a tie tack,” Black Star interrupted. “Initials JNK mean anything to you, Lieutenant?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Let’s talk at the station.”

She drove them in her car. They spent the twenty-minute ride in silence.

Gruble led them into the station and through a series of hallways designed to confuse people until she stopped at a door labelled PRIVATE. “In here,” she said, and unlocked it.

Inside was a conference room. Gruble locked the door behind them and pressed a button. Metal closed over the windows and door.

“Five years ago,” she said, “the current governor of Cami joined the city council. Three years later, he was elected mayor, and last year he became governor. I want you to understand, this man is powerful, and charismatic, and I’ve no doubt he started out trying to do good.

“Politics changed him. He became cruel. In public, he’s as likable as ever, but behind closed doors...I process more reports against him in a day than I do everyone else combined. And after the Kishin madness began to spread, he only got worse.”

“You think he’s the killer?” Tsubaki asked.

“I do. But we don’t have the evidence. He’s too powerful. If we tried to arrest him, we’d be dead in a day. That’s why I asked for a team from the Academy ten days ago, after the third murder. And the tie tack, JNK - his name is Josei no Kira. It’s not enough for us to do anything, but you two - you can act.”

They looked at each other. “That would explain why nobody wants to talk,” Tsubaki said. “They’re afraid of him.”

“Then let’s do this,” Black Star said. “Where does he live?”

The fight was disappointing. Tsubaki took her kusarigama form. Black Star broke into his house and crept into his bedroom, where he still lay sleeping.

Black Star slapped him. “Get up!”

Kari’s eyes popped open. “Who are you?”

“My name is Black Star, of the Star clan,” he said. “And you are going to fight me.”

“Get out before I call the police.”

“No. I’m here on behalf of the Death Weapon Meister Academy. And _you_ have been killing women.”

“W-What are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” he snapped. “Those ten women who worked in brothels. Do you even remember their names?”

“I haven’t visited a brothel in my life! I didn’t kill them!”

“Then who did?”

“I don’t know!”

“I don’t believe you,” he said, hefting Tsubaki in his hands. “Get up and fight me.”

“You’re crazy,” he said. “I wasn’t even here when the first woman got killed.”

“I don’t believe you. Get up and fight me or I’ll kill you where you lay.”

He scrambled out of bed. “I didn’t kill them!” he repeated.

“Black Star,” Tsubaki whispered to him. “I think he’s telling the truth.”

“No. He’s lying.”

“I’m not! Look - I can prove it” - he opened a desk drawer and hurriedly pulled out a sheaf of small papers - “the first murder was on September 10, right? Here’s a receipt for a hotel room in Mubani. That’s five hours away.” He held it out to Black Star.

“You could have written that yourself,” he said, but doubt was starting to creep in.

“Why would I have? I didn’t kill anyone.” He half-laughed. “First I have to run against that damn lieutenant, and now you think I killed people. What a year.”

“What lieutenant? And what race?”

“The governor’s race. Lieutenant Gruble, she was my opponent.” 

“You think?” Black Star asked Tsubaki.

“I do.”

Black Star looked at the governor. “If we find out you’re lying, we’ll be back,” he said. “Nobody escapes from Black Star.”

They returned to the station and asked for Lieutenant Gruble, only to be told she’d taken sick and gone home. They weaseled her address from the peon at the information desk and ran there.

It was empty - she’d fled. Tsubaki and Black Star tore the place apart, looking for any sign of where she’d gone, but it looked like she’d packed a bag and run without forethought.

“She has to be somewhere,” Tsubaki said to Black Star as they left. “We’ll-”

Something drew Black Star’s attention skyward, and he rolled away from the woman who hit the ground hard enough to crack the pavement. Tsubaki turned into her kusarigama, and, not waiting for her to get up or try to talk her way out of it, he beheaded her.

Her body crumbled into dust, leaving behind the red soul of a Kishin egg. Tsubaki reformed into human shape and grabbed it with greedy hands.

“Your first soul,” Black Star said.

She swallowed it. “Let’s go home.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains non-explicit child sexual abuse. The villain is a pedophile. It is also heavily implied that two female characters were CSA victims.

Kid found Stein in his office. “Dr. Stein?”

“What’s up, Kid?”

Kid held out the mission card. “This says to see you for what I need to know.”

Stein scanned it. “Close the door and sit down.”

Liz and Patti sat on either side of Kid. Stein began, “If, when I’m done talking, you want me to take it, I would be more than happy to. _More_ than happy to.”

“Why would we want you to take it?”

“There’s more than one way to form a Kishin egg,” Stein said. “In one-star missions, you focus exclusively on murderers. Murder is something a child can understand. Murder is bad, we learn that in the cradle.

"But when you earn your second star, you learn the other ways a Kishin egg is created. Any series of bad acts performed without regret can create an egg; a series of bad acts performed regretfully still taints the soul. Crimes against people, rather than against property, change the soul more quickly. And intent matters, so if you were to, say, kill someone to keep your child safe, that would not taint you as much as killing someone because you enjoy it. That's how Mifune has remained whole all this time, even with the rather astounding number of people he's hurt and killed - he fights to protect, not for greed or lust. It's how meisters and weapons remain whole - we fight to keep the world safe.

"This mission is for a man who rapes children."

Kid's jaw dropped. It was Liz who broke the silence: _"What?"_

"A man who rapes children," he repeated. "He likes to take pictures. He works as a teacher, well-liked by students and parents, and he uses that to lure children into his home. He's good at manipulation; none of them ever try to tell. If it weren't for Lord Death's abilities, we wouldn't know it was happening at all."

"Where is he?" Patti asked. There was an edge to her voice Kid had never heard before. That wasn't Patti's voice, carefree and laughing in the face of danger; it was Liz's, all sharp edges and promises of pain.

"Mongado," Stein answered. "The address on the bottom is where he lives."

"Let's go," Patti said, already standing.

"These missions are hard," Stein said. "Not because these - _people_ \- know how to fight, but because of your reactions. The disgust you feel when you find them, when you stare into the face of an unrepentant monster - that, right there, gives them the opening to hurt you. And because they're so well-liked, so good at pretending, you have to make it clear why they've disappeared. It's easier with someone who takes pictures - find them, black out the children's faces, and leave them somewhere hidden but easy to find."

"Why black out the faces?" Kid asked. "Surely it would be better to know who they are."

"No," Liz said. "It's harder when everyone knows."

"It is," Stein agreed, and a flash of understanding Kid couldn't interpret passed between them.

"Is there anything else?" Kid asked.

"No. But like I said, I'd be ecstatic to take this one if you want to pass."

"We'll take it," Patti and Liz said together.  
***  
Mongado was a sprawling city in the jungle. Kid touched down outside, where the trees were thick. Inside the town, they bought a map and wandered down the street, looking for all the world like tourists just out for a day of fun. Kid's hair brought a few strange looks, but was dismissed as a fashion from somewhere else - they got their fair share of people wanting the see the City of the Trees, and tourism was a major industry.

"This is it," Liz said, looking at a neat little house. "Is he home?"

Kid reached out with his soul. "Empty. Let's go in and wait."

They slipped in through the back door and settled on the couch in the living room. They didn't speak.

Soon enough, they heard the front door open. They stood in unison, but before Patti and Liz could change, they heard a man saying, "Would you like tea? Or soda?"

A child's voice answered, "Sure!"

"I got the kid," Liz said. "Patti, Kid, soon as he's gone, you kill that ass."

"But-"

"Hold her with both hands, it'll be symmetrical," Liz snapped, and left the room.

She found them in the kitchen. "Hello, Mr. Triny," Liz said coldly.

The man was short and stout, with a kind face and small spectacles hiding his eyes. "Who are you?" he asked.

"My name is Liz. I just need to talk to that child you have there."

"I'm not a child!" the kid snapped, glaring up at her from behind her spiky bangs. "I'm seven and a half!"

Liz swallowed against the bile churning in her stomach. "What's your name?"

"Marie."

"Marie, I need you to come with me, please."

Marie grabbed Triny's hand. "No! You're a stranger, and I don't go with strangers!"

Liz moved fast, using a bit of her soul's power to grab Marie before Triny even saw her move. She wrenched Marie away from the man and slung her over her shoulder, ignoring her crying and screaming.

"When I come back," she said to Triny, "you won't be here anymore."

She carried Marie out of the house, attracting quite a bit of attention - but that was all right. She stopped a passerby and asked, "Do you know where I can find a police officer? I need to get this little one back to her parents."

Back at the house, Kid and Patti entered the kitchen as soon as Liz was gone. Triny had the phone in his hand.

"Put it down," Kid said, aiming Patti at him.

Triny dropped the phone. "What do you want?" he asked. "Please, take it, take anything you want-"

Kid fired. Triny's head exploded in bits of gore, and then it evaporated into smoke. The Kishin egg floated in the air, and Patti took her human form again, eyes stuck to the red soul before them.

"I'm going to find the pictures," Kid said. "Whose is this?"

"Mine," she said. "We'll both be at forty-nine now."

"A square," he murmured, and left her to her feast.

Liz returned within minutes. "All done!" Patti chirped.

"The child?" Kid asked.

"Left her with the police. Triny?"

"Dead," Patti answered. "Kid, you find the photos yet?"

"Not yet."

They spread out, all looking for the evidence they knew had to be there. It was Kid who found them, hidden beneath a loose floorboard under the bed. They settled into the distasteful task of blacking out the children's faces, trying not to take in too much detail. When they were done, Kid put them at the bottom of a desk drawer, and they left out the back.


	5. Soul in Danger! Can Maka Protect Him?

Maka and Soul found Sid in the dispensary, talking to Naigus about something they fell silent about when they saw the students.

"You okay?" Naigus asked.

"I'm fine." She held out the card. "The card said we needed to talk to Sid?"

Sid took the card and examined it. "Ah. This one. It's right here in Death City, actually. Your target likes to abduct soldiers and torture them until they die. They have some kind of shield up; Lord Death can't find out who it is like he usually does. It's investigative work. When I was alive, I hated that work, that's the kind of man I was. But you might like it. I’d suggest getting police reports and trying to figure out who it is."

"Okay," Maka said. "Soul, you ready to go?"

"Totally." He grinned lazily at Sid and Naigus, shoved himself from the wall, and followed Maka without taking his hands from his pockets.

"Police station, huh? What do you think we'll find there?"

"Probably the reports." Maka rolled her eyes at him.

"Well, yeah, but if the police are already after the guy, what do you think we'll find that they didn't?"

"I don't know!" she yelled at him. "It's like you don't even _want_ this mission!"

Soul raised his eyebrows. "Maka," he said, "I want the mission. I'm asking what you think they missed."

"I don't know, do I? Not until we get the files." They pattered down the long steps outside the Academy. "Come on, police station is this way."

"I know where it is!" Soul snapped. There was something between them, now that they were alone, a tension neither had expected. They'd been surrounded by the others even in sleep, no time to talk or relax or resonate just the two of them. Soul realized with a jolt that the last time it had been just the two of them resonating, not even reaching out for anyone else, had been months ago. Even against the Kishin, they'd both reached for the other students automatically, relying on their strength as much as their own, and it had been jarring to suddenly not have it. The Kishin had claimed it hadn't worked because he wasn't truly evil, but there were so many other explanations: the two of them weren't strong enough, Soul's black blood prevented it from working properly, the desire to protect each other rather than destroy the Kishin had been too strong. Too many possibilities. 

And since they'd faced Asura, they hadn't been alone, hadn't been able to get back into sync with each other. Soul still didn't know exactly what had happened when Maka had punched Asura, but it couldn't have been as simple as she'd claimed. And he'd been so on edge, staying silent unless asked a direct question, watching the background for threats, while she'd been trying so hard to look carefree at the same time she was broken in a fundamental way Soul couldn't understand.

Her voice broke through his musings. "Are you coming or not?"

Soul blinked. She was holding open the door to the station, looking at him impatiently. "Yeah, sorry," he said. "I was thinking."

"Get lost in unfamiliar territory?"

Her voice was light, teasing, and it would be so easy to pretend this was six months ago, when all they had to worry about was getting the witch's soul after they killed Jack the Ripper.

He gave in and pretended. "You wound me," he said. "I'll have you know I think all the time!"

"About what, being cool?"

"Hey, being cool is hard work," he said, and was rewarded with the first full grin he'd seen on Maka's face since…since before Asura had been freed, really. She always seemed to find something new to worry about.

The grin faded after barely a second. "We need to get to work."

"Yeah," he agreed.

The sergeant was more than happy to have them look through the files - she'd requested Academy assistance the same day as the Kishin's awakening, and the one they called Gomon Gosuto had only gotten worse as the madness spread. In the week before the awakening he'd had three victims; after the Kishin awoke, he sped up, one victim a day, and the day Asura had been defeated he'd taken two and had held steady there since.

He'd gotten more brutal, too. At the beginning had been cuts and bruises, but the most recent victims had had holes torn open in their bodies and electrical burns laid on top of heat burns. In more than one place the flesh had been burned away down to the bone. Eyes had been gouged out, tongues cut off, ears sliced, fingers and toes chopped.

"You can see why we asked for help," Sergeant Keikan said. "He leaves no evidence. We've been trying to find where two victims overlap, but so far, nothing."

"They were all men?" Soul asked, confirming what he'd seen in the photographs.

"Yes. Fit men who had been in the army."

"Could it be someone from the army? Maybe they'd been in the same unit?" Maka asked.

"Thought of that. Nope. Everyone they came in contact with in the military is coming up clean."

"Where were they stationed?"

Keikan motioned to boxes along the wall. "Everything we have on them is in there. If you think you can find something we missed, go for it. I have other cases that need my attention."

She swanned from the room, leaving Soul and Maka alone. Maka grabbed a box and tossed it to Soul. She grabbed one for herself, and they got to work.

"There's nothing," Soul said two hours later.

Maka stretched out a crick in her neck. "There has to be something. Serial killers don't just strike randomly, you know that!"

"Except for the ones that do," Soul said. "He may just want to hurt military men because one hurt him."

Maka froze. "Soul," she said, "that's _brilliant!_ " She ran out the door. Soul followed, so close he almost ran into her when she stopped outside a door. "Sergeant Keiken," she said, "can we get reports of any violence done by soldiers to civilians?"

Keiken rose from her desk. "Probably. Why?"

"It might help," Soul said, cutting Maka off. She was entirely too trusting sometimes, and they didn't know who was listening.

"Then let's see what we can do about it."

Three hours later, they'd gone through the files thoroughly, and there were nearly a dozen standouts. "Let's split up," Maka said. "We can get it done faster that way."

"What if you find him?" Soul asked. "If I'm not there, then-"

Maka drooped. "You're right. I got ahead of myself again."

Soul clapped her shoulder. "It's all good. Let's go shake some trees."  
***  
"That was a bust," Soul said as they entered their apartment.

"Yeah," Maka said. "Do you feel like cooking?"

"No. You?"

"No. Let's do takeout?"

"Yeah, I'll go. Pizza?"

"Sure."

Soul left. Maka fell back onto the cushions and pet Blair, who cuddled up on her lap. Sometimes it was nice to just have something fuzzy in your hands.

Ten minutes after she sat down, panic and pain raced across the bond that was always in the backs of their minds, even when they weren't resonating. Maka sat bolt upright, startling Blair, who jumped into the other chair and turned into a woman to demand, "What was that for?"

"Shh!" Maka hissed, closing her eyes and reaching out, trying to find Soul. She got no response, which heightened her fear - this was bad, so very very bad. She'd still had the buzz of him in her mind when he'd been cut by Ragnarok - was it only five months ago? - and when Asura had nearly killed him, but right now, she had a throbbing hum, too deep to catch when she tried to listen to it, like a faint star that you couldn't look at straight-on and expect to still see it. But it was _there_. He was still alive.

"Soul's hurt," she said. "I'm going to find him."

"How will you do that?"

"I'll find his soul."

"A locator spell would be faster."

Maka drew up short. "Can you do that?"

"I can." She closed her eyes and hummed, cocking her head and then mumbling, "Pum-pum-pumpkin? Pumpkin?" Her eyes opened. "West of here, about two miles."

"I'll be back," Maka said, and slammed her way out of the apartment. She took the distance at a dead run, adrenaline dulling the burn in her legs that started appearing halfway there and the stabbing in her chest when she took in a breath. When she thought she'd gone far enough, she leaned into a doorway, closed her eyes, and reached for Soul.

For a moment, she was disoriented, and then there was a flash of boiling-hot water and she wasn’t anymore. "You see?" someone was gloating. "Even as a weapon you can't escape. Where's your meister, little weapon?"

"Go to hell," they spat.

Maka focused and tried to pinpoint exactly where he was. In front of her, barely two hundred yards - she was a street off. She used the storefronts' awnings and trash bins to jump over the buildings in her way and landed in a crouch. Barely left, which made it the house with the yellow door.

She kicked it in. The upper rooms were empty, and so were the ones on the main floor. She went around, opening every door she could find. Soul's soul was beneath her; there had to be a way down!

Finally, she found a kitchen door that was locked. She kicked it open, wood splintering, and thundered down the stairs. She caught a glimpse of Soul, wide-eyed and bleeding on the wall, and her fury increased. It blinded her to the person doing this, who grabbed her by the throat and slammed her to the floor.

"Found your meister," the woman said gloatingly. She looked down at Maka. "Remind me, you're pretty useless without your weapons, right?"

Maka's hot anger blinded her vision. She punched out, and the woman staggered back with a cry. Maka rolled to her feet.

"Maka," Soul groaned. "Your scythes."

Maka's lips tightened. She blocked the incoming punch and kicked hard; she was rewarded by the woman grunting. Maka's hair was grabbed, and she punched the woman over and over again, but it wasn't doing much.

"I knew you were useless," she said, and threw Maka into the wall.

"I'm not!" she yelled, getting to her feet.

"Then prove it, meister." The woman turned her title into an insult.

Maka focused. Justin's way hadn't worked, but Soul's might. She imagined a line of hot water along her arms, turning them into blades - and they transformed.

"What?" the woman gasped.

"Shut up," Maka grunted, and cut right through her neck. Her body disintegrated, leaving behind a red soul and a key that clattered to the floor. The blades disappeared a moment later.

"Soul," she said, lurching to the wall. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he said. "You did it, Maka, you used your form!"

"Yeah, I guess I did. How do I get you out of these things?"

"She had a key," Soul said.

Maka grabbed it from the floor. She only had to touch his chains for them to puddle around his feet. He fell, and Maka caught him, supporting his weight for an instant. "You sure you're okay?"

"Just fine," Soul growled, attention fixed on the soul. "That one's yours, eat it."

"Uh-uh," Maka said. "Let's get you to Death Scythe before I start eating them."

"You sure?"

"Uh-huh."

Soul smiled. "Well, then," he said, and devoured the soul. "Let's go get our pizza and get home."


	6. A New Technique! What is Stein Thinking?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains non-explicit suicide and a suicide note.

On Monday, Maka excitedly showed Justin that she'd managed to get her blades to appear. “Nice,” he said, and swung an arm at her. She blocked instinctively, and the screech of metal against metal alerted her to the fact that Justin’s blades were also out.

“Hey!” she protested. “Why did you do that?”

“Two reasons. I needed to see how good your reflexes were, and I wanted to see how good your blades are. Today we start you on blocking.” He struck again, and only a quick leap backwards saved her from having a third nostril. Her right foot landed on an uneven rock and she fell.

Justin's eyes were level when she got back to her feet. “Again.”

An hour later, bruised and achy, she rejoined her friends. “How was gym?” she asked them.

“Fine,” Crona said. “How was Justin’s lesson?”

“I’m all beat up,” she said. “He started me on blocking today.”

“That’s a good thing to know,” Black Star said. “How do you think I got as good as I am?”

“By bragging,” Soul said.

“It’s not bragging if you really are as good as I am,” Black Star shot back. “You could learn something from me, slowpoke.”

“Are you feeling all right?” Liz asked Soul. “You were running slow today.”

“I’m fine,” Soul said. “I didn’t sleep well, is all.”

In Battle Studies, Stein introduced something new. "It's possible to change your move in the middle," he said. "For example, a scythe meister might change a normal swing into Witch Hunter. A knife meister might change a stab into Enchantment. Why would this be useful, Tsinada?"

Tsinada said, "It gives them less time to guard."

"Right, and also less time to recognize what they need to guard against. It's a more advanced technique than you're used to, but by now, everyone should know how important it is to be prepared. I'll be taking you in groups by meister type, so gun meisters, you're up first. The rest of you, see the schedule on the board."

Kid, Liz, and Patti waited with Henry and Jill, Lina and Rei, and Nobaki and Mike. When the room had emptied out, Stein said, "So for you guys, the first resonance level is Cannon. The faster you can change, the easier it will be to change mid-attack. Go ahead and change into your weapon forms."

Kid caught Liz and Patti. When Jill, Rei, and Mike had their weapons in hand, Stein said, "Let me see how fast you can resonate into Cannon. Go!"

Mike and Nobaki were the quickest, followed by Henry and Jill. Kid, Liz, and Patti were barely faster than Rei and Lina.

"All of you need to be able to change faster," Stein said. "Return to normal and try again."

None of them managed to get fast enough to satisfy Stein. Kid, who clocked in at just under six seconds, was the fastest.

"Practice," Stein ordered them. "This time Wednesday I want all of you to be under four seconds."

The others didn't fare much better, except for Crona. Ragnarok lived in her blood, and so they lived in perpetual resonance now that they were more equally powered. Stein got them going on Devil's Snare, the move of the first resonance level; they'd never even tried it before, and it took them most of the hour to achieve it. He gave the blade meisters the same instructions he'd given the others: have the change under four seconds by Wednesday.

By unspoken agreement, they stayed the night as a group. None of them had slept well over their weekend excursions, their beds too cold and lonely.

Justin beat Maka up some more the next morning while the others played dodgeball. In Soul Studies, Stein started them on the math behind resonance. When it was time for Battle Studies, however, the four Death Weapons and Shun filed into the classroom.

It was the first time Maka had seen her father since they'd all eaten together the day she'd woken up. Looking at him now brought feelings too complicated to sort out, anger and betrayal and gratitude and loyalty and affection and hatred all mixed together, and she tried to shove it all out of her head by focusing on her mother - also a mistake, since she hadn't seen her mother since that same night, and loneliness welled up. She'd convinced herself that if her mother ever stopped traveling and settled in the same place, they'd see each other more, but with Mama right there, she couldn't keep telling herself that anymore

Stein started talking, and she focused on him instead. "These are the four Death Weapons. I'm sure you all know Death Scythe Albarn, Death Crossbow Azusa, Death Hammer Marie, and Death Blade Justin. For those of you who don't know her, this is three-star meister Shun Taramaki. They've come in to help explain how real battles work."

"Hopefully there won't be any more," Marie said with feeling.

"Hopefully," Stein agreed. "Those of you who fought in any of the battles, come down to the front. You'll be helping to teach this class."

Ox, Kim, Kilik, and their weapons strutted down. Black Star leapt down, completely bypassing the stairs. Kid, Liz, Patti, Tsubaki, and Soul followed at a more sedate pace. Maka was in the aisle when she noticed Crona wasn't with them. "Aren't you coming?" she asked.

"I didn't fight," Crona said quietly.

"You fought Medusa," Maka said. "That was a battle."

"Not really."

"Miss Marie," Maka called, "does the fight with Medusa count?"

"Yes," she said instantly.

"Come on, Crona," Maka said, and he followed her down reluctantly.

"In an ordinary fight," Stein began, "what do you do if you're outmatched?"

"Run away," the class chorused.

"Exactly. Lord Death won't always be watching and able to send help, so running away to get help on your own is the best plan. In a battle, though, running isn't always possible. If you can't run, what should you do - surrender or fight?

"Fighting is nearly always the better option. If you fight, you wear your opponent down, so even if he wins, the next person to fight him has a better chance of winning. If you surrender, you become a prisoner. They can torture you, to get the information in your head. They can kill you whenever they wish. They take control of every aspect of your life. The only benefit to surrendering is the absolutely tiny chance you'll be able to overhear something you can use if and when you get rescued.

"When you surrender, you also plant doubt in your own side. Maybe you were a double agent, and surrendered in order to pass information to the other side. Maybe they can turn you while you're there. Maybe they'll destroy you so thoroughly you'll never be sane again. Maybe they'll kill you, and any rescue attempts will be for nothing. If you surrender, you better have a plan going into it, and someone else better have a plan to get you out. Shun?"

"In a battle, there are people giving you orders," Shun said. "We tell you where to go and who to fight. If you decide you know better and go against orders, you can get people killed. You _don't_ know better, I promise you. We have a better view of the battle than you do, and we know everyone's strengths and weaknesses better than you do. Everyone follows orders or everyone gets killed."

"Thank you, Shun. What we're going to do is have Azusa draw out battle maps and explain why we made the decisions we did, starting with the fight for BREW."

Azusa grabbed a piece of chalk, closed her eyes, and started drawing on the blackboard. In moments a detailed map of the island, including the magnetic field and enemy troops, materialized. She turned back around and said, "This is where we thought the enemy would be. We placed ground forces here and here, and a student group at the easiest entrance to the magnetic field. Students, talk about your experience."

Ox and Kilik and Kim spoke over each other, words tumbling over each other fast, and the rest of them waited. Eventually they ran out of words, and Black Star jumped in, talking about going after Stein and Marie and how Soul had figured out a way to let them resonate inside the magnetic field. It had been the first time Maka used Genie Hunter.

Azusa erased the island map and instead drew one of the Madness Relay Machines that Arachne had set up. Shun had led the assault on the one in Hachewana. She had a dull, factual way of explaining things that had most of the class propping their heads on their hands and trying not to doze.

When she finished, Azusa erased the map. Marie stepped forward and said, "I'm sure all of you remember Medusa. What you may not know is that Stein, Crona, Maka, Soul, and I fought her while the assault on Arachnophobia's compound took place."

"I was deep in the Madness," Stein said. "I didn't know where I was or what I was doing. Medusa had it easy, getting me there. Marie pulled me out."

"While I was doing that, Crona, Maka, and Soul faced Medusa," Marie said. "Soul was hit badly. Medusa's Vector Arrows came at them, and Crona pushed them out of the way. He was - he was impaled, and nearly died. Maka and Soul managed Genie Hunter, and that killed her. For good this time, we hope. We returned to the Academy, Maka and Soul to the battle on Arachnophobia. Azusa?"

"We sent ground troops in," Azusa said. "Arachnophobia had laid traps in the forest surrounding the castle."

"I set them all off," Black Star said, "so the others could get through more easily."

"When you got to the castle, how did you get in?" Azusa asked him.

"Mifune was in the courtyard," he said. "Tsubaki and me, we'd fought him before. At the fight before, when we found out he was working for them, we tried to convince him to switch sides. Arachnophobia could protect Angela better than he could alone, he said, so he couldn’t switch without them hurting her.

"We fought. Mifune's good, almost as good as me, and we did beat him. He got us into the castle, and once we'd gotten Angela, he took us right to their base. That's when Death City showed up."

"Liz, Patti, and I had been sent to retrieve a magic tool," Kid said. "The tool is what allowed the city to grow legs. We were in the Death Room when Lord Death fought the Kishin."

"It was incredible to see," Azusa said.

"At the end of the fight, the Kishin ran to Arachnophobia's base, swallowed Arachne's soul, and created a cocoon to protect himself while he healed," Kid continued. "We got in. Maka beat him. We got out."

"But what _happened?_ " Nobaki asked. "What happened inside?"

They looked at each other. "It's complicated," Maka said finally.

"We used our best moves," Kid said. "Death Cannon, Enchanted Sword, Kishin Hunter. All we could do was get him back down to the size he'd been before he swallowed Arachne And even then he knocked most of us out. Maka?"

Maka cleared her throat. "I - we were - I was _so sure_ we were going to…" she trailed off. Death Scythe came to stand behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder. She leaned back into him. "Soul was hurt. Everyone else looked like they were dead. Asura woke me just to taunt me some more. And I was - I _knew_ we were all going to die." She felt the panic she'd felt then, the terror swamping her. "But I couldn't run. There was nowhere to go, and I couldn't leave them. And I could see Asura's soul, and it was - I can't describe it. The soul of a Kishin, even weakened…every wavelength, all at once, and I had to sort through them, I had to find a weakness or a sore spot or just - _something._ Anything to give us a shadow of a chance of surviving.

"And he stood there and let me, so damn sure I wouldn't find anything. So sure that stupid little me couldn't find anything to use against him. So sure I'd join him in believing that order was a lie and madness was the only truth. If he hadn't been so confident, we would all be dead.

"But he _was _confident. And I found the one wavelength he didn't have, the one emotion he never felt, because he was so scared of death he ran from it. He had no bravery.__

__"Black Star is the only one of us who can use Soul Force. He was - I thought he was dead. I thought all of them were dead. I thought I was the only one who was going to get out, me or Asura, and I couldn't let it be Asura._ _

__"So I thought about what wavelength bravery was, and he stood there and laughed at me when I punched him, and he was still laughing when he broke apart, and he was still laughing when his soul spilled out through the cracks, and he laughed until his soul dissolved into the ground._ _

__"Kid brought us back up to the Academy steps. We slept for three days. And here we are."_ _

__Her father's hands were tight on her shoulders. Strangely, she wasn't as repulsed as she usually was; instead, she was glad for the comfort._ _

__Questions poured out: how had she known to look at his soul? Hadn't she been affected by the madness wavelength? Why had Crona gone after Medusa? How had Soul made them resonate inside the magnetic field? Why had they run inside the Kishin's cocoon?_ _

__Stein held up his hands. "One at a time!" he called._ _

__They spent the rest of the period answering questions. Some of them were directed at the adults, but most were sent towards the kids who'd faced Asura. They answered as best they could and wished desperately for time to run out._ _

__Finally, it was over, and Stein dismissed them. He kept Crona back, though, and so they waited for him. Azusa, Marie, and Justin left with most of the students. Eventually, it was just the eight students, Death Scythe, Shun, and Stein left in the room._ _

__Stein handed Crona a piece of paper. "This is everything I've found," he said._ _

__"On what?" Black Star asked._ _

__Crona glanced back at them. "Ways to neutralize black blood. I asked him when I first got here. Thanks, Dr. Stein."_ _

__"Of course," he said. "I'll see you all tomorrow."_ _

__Soul tripped as they trooped out of the room. All seven others reached out to steady him. He shook off their hands, snapped, "I'm fine!" and veered off into the boys' bathroom._ _

__"I need to grab something from my room," Crona said._ _

__"Come by our apartment tonight," Maka offered._ _

__"Thanks, but I need to work on the essay for Ethics, and I always get distracted by you guys. I'll see you tomorrow." He smiled and wandered away._ _

__"Did he look sad to you?" Tsubaki asked._ _

__"Sadder than usual, you mean?" Black Star asked. "How could you tell?"_ _

__"Maybe it was my imagination," Tsubaki said._ _

__Soul rejoined them. "Where'd Crona go?"_ _

__"Ethics essay," Liz said._ _

__"Oh, damn, I forgot about that. Maka, can I look over your notes?"_ _

__She rolled her eyes. "Fine. But you're cooking tonight."_ _

__"Deal."  
***  
In his room in the dungeons of the Academy, Crona unfolded the paper Stein had given him._ _

__"Are you sure we should do this?" Ragnarok asked._ _

__"We need to know what it feels like so if someone else tries we can fight it." The lie rolled off his tongue smoothly. "You agreed to this."_ _

__"I know. I want candy when I wake up."_ _

__"You can have all the candy you want," Crona said. "Now help me figure out what this says."_ _

__Three hours later, they stared at the finished runes. "It just needs to be activated," Ragnarok said finally. "Are you sure about this?"_ _

__"Yes," Crona said, and used a pair of scissors to cut open his palm. He dripped blood into the center of the paper, and it glowed bright red. It flattened itself out to cover the entire paper, and the runes flashed white and vanished._ _

__Crona staggered, feeling weak. "Rag- Ragnarok?" he gasped._ _

__There was no answer. It had worked._ _

__The paper had said it would work for three to five hours. Crona hoped he'd only need one. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and started to write.  
***  
Soul blinked, trying to force the words on the paper to come into focus. He couldn't do it - he must be getting sick with the flu that had been going around the Academy._ _

__"Soul?" someone said._ _

__"Ugh," he answered._ _

__"You're sweating."_ _

__"Think I'm getting the flu." He smiled shakily. "Think I'll just go to bed."_ _

__"You do that," Tsubaki said. "I'll bring you in some soup."_ _

__Soul swallowed. "Rain check on the soup?"_ _

__"Sure. It'll be in the fridge."_ _

__Soul stumbled to his room and closed the door behind him. The others shrugged and started making dinner._ _

__Five minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Patti answered it. "Oh! Maka, your mom's here!"_ _

__"Mama!" she said happily, rushing out of the kitchen. "Staying for dinner?"_ _

__Shun smiled uncomfortably. "Actually, I just got a new assignment from Lord Death. I wanted to say bye."_ _

__"You're leaving already?" Maka said, disappointed._ _

__"Yes. I love you." Shun opened her arms._ _

__Maka hugged her. "I love you too, Mama. Be safe."_ _

__Shun kissed the top of her head. "You too. I hope I'll be back in under a year."_ _

__"I'll see you then," Maka said, squeezing her one last time and then stepping back._ _

__"See you then," Shun said, and was gone._ _

__Maka closed the door, hurt welling up inside. She punched the frame hard enough to split the wood._ _

__"Maka!" Blair said. "What's gotten into you?"_ _

__"Mama left again," she said dully. "I'm starting to understand why Papa cheated."_ _

__Tsubaki pulled her into a hug. She rested her head on the taller girl's shoulder and willed back tears. "It'll be okay," Tsubaki said softly._ _

__"I don't want to understand why Papa cheated," she said._ _

__"I know."_ _

__"Come eat," Black Star said. "You'll feel better once you've got some of my cooking in you."_ _

__"I've had your cooking," Kid said. "She'll feel worse."_ _

__It wasn't actually that bad. Maka relaxed into the bickering and joking that dominated their conversations and, at least for a little while, could ignore the complicated feelings that her mother brought out._ _

__Tsubaki shook her out of a nightmare around one in the morning. "You wanna talk?" she whispered._ _

__"Just - more Kishin," she said quietly. Her mother had been ripped apart by him._ _

__Tsubaki nodded. "Tea?"_ _

__"No. let's just go back to sleep."_ _

__Maka woke Patti around three and just let her cry it out. Kid woke, gasping for air, at four. Black Star's flailing had them all up at six, and by silent agreement, none of them went back to sleep._ _

__"Soul," Maka called, rapping on his door, "it's time to get up." When she didn't get a response, she pounded harder. "I swear he sleeps like he's dead," she said to Liz._ _

__"I'll wake him up," Black Star said, smirking. He shoved open the door, making it bounce off the wall, and yelled, "SOUL! Get your lazy ass up!"_ _

__The mound of blankets on the bed didn't move. They went in to shake him, and found him curled in a ball on his bed, sweating and grey. When Maka went to put a hand on his forehead, she could tell from an inch away he was running a fever._ _

__Black Star was already in the bathroom, running hot water to build up steam on the mirror. Maka ran out to the kitchen and wet a towel to put on his forehead._ _

__"What's up?" Kid asked from the breakfast table._ _

__"Soul's really sick," she said. "Black Star's calling Lord Death to ask for Stein or Naigus."_ _

__Stein got to the apartment five minutes later. Patti answered the door and showed him in to Soul's room, where Maka sat on the bed holding his hand. Stein ushered her out and closed the door._ _

__He emerged a few minutes later. "We need to get him to the Academy," he announced. "Black Star, Tsubaki, get him there as fast as you can."_ _

__Tsubaki flashed into Enchanted Sword. Black Star grabbed Soul from the pile of blankets and hoisted him over his shoulder, keeping him steady with one hand and holding Tsubaki in the other. There was a flash of light as they resonated, and then they were gone._ _

__"Will he be all right?" Maka asked him, needing to hear him say it even though Stein's orders to get him to the Academy didn't bode well._ _

__Instead of answering, Stein said, "You might as well come along. Don't worry about classes."_ _

__That, more than anything else, scared Maka. Stein wasn't one to avoid questions or be lenient on students who skipped class._ _

__They made it to the Academy in record time. Stein left them in the hall outside the infirmary, where they settled in to wait._ _

__Almost an hour later, Death Scythe found them. "Why aren't you all in class?" he asked._ _

__"Soul's sick," Maka said. "Stein wouldn't say if he'd be all right."_ _

__Death Scythe paled. "Are you doing okay?"_ _

__"Yeah. Fine."_ _

__He ran a hand through his hair. "I have to meet with Lord Death. He wouldn't tell me what it was about, but I can't keep him waiting. I'll be in the Death Room if you need me."_ _

__"Thanks, Papa."_ _

__He rested a hand on top of her head. "I'll be in the Death Room if _any_ of you need me," he said, looking around. His eyes came to rest on Patti, who was lying down with her head in Liz's lap._ _

__"Thanks," the rest of them muttered._ _

__Stein came out fifteen minutes after Death Scythe left. "Soul's going to be okay," he announced._ _

__"What happened?" Maka asked._ _

__"It looked like he got cut by a whip," Stein said._ _

__Maka gasped. "Last weekend," she said._ _

__Stein nodded. "It got infected. Naigus and I have cleaned it out and started Soul on medicine that should help him."_ _

__"He'll be okay, though?" Kid asked._ _

__"He should be fine. You can come sit with him, if you'd like, but he won't be awake until tomorrow at the earliest."_ _

__They mobbed his bed. They'd only been sitting there for twenty minutes when the door opened and Death Scythe and Justin walked in. "I need to talk to you," Death Scythe said to Stein. "Alone."_ _

__They went into the small room attached to the infirmary and closed the door. The students couldn't make out any words, no matter how hard they tried. Justin stood in the door, watching them blandly._ _

__The door opened abruptly and they looked at the men as they walked out, not bothering to pretend they hadn't been eavesdropping._ _

__Death Scythe said, "I have bad news and worse news." Not waiting for them to say anything, he continued, "The bad news is that the Grandwitch has demanded a meeting with Lord Death. It's a coin toss as to whether the meeting will end with war being declared."_ _

__He paused. Black Star broke the silence: "So what's the worse news?"_ _

__"The worse news," Death Scythe repeated. He dragged a stool to Soul's bed and sat. "The worse news is about Crona."_ _

__"Is he okay?" they asked all at once._ _

__"No," Death Scythe said, "he's not. This morning Lord Death sent Justin to Crona's room. Justin - um. He - fuck." Death Scythe ran a hand through his hair. Maka was startled to see a few strands of grey mixed in with the fiery red. "Crona…Crona chose to die last night."_ _

__They stared at him. It was Liz who understood first._ _

__"He left you a letter," he continued, pulling an envelope out of his jacket pocket. "It's addressed to all of you." He laid it on Soul's blanket, in the middle of all of them, and sniffled. "You should read it."_ _

__Tsubaki reached out and took the envelope. Her hands were shaking when she opened the envelope, and her voice trembled when she started to read._ _

__"My dearest friends,_ _

__I know people usually say sorry in a letter like this, but I'm not sorry. I have a demon sword embedded in me. I've fought the black blood madness my whole life. The past three months have been the best of my life. I'm so, so happy I got to meet you all._ _

__Maka, Soul, do you remember the first time we met? We fought in a church somewhere. I don't even remember where. I almost killed Soul, and I never apologized for it. I never knew how. Soul, I'm sorry._ _

__"When you came to fight me, I was guarding Eruka and the One-Eyed Witch on their way to awaken the Kishin. Maka, you took the time to talk to me. It was the first time anyone except Medusa beat me. You came into my circle on the desert, and it became a beach. You brought me out of the madness and brought Ragnarok down to a size I could manage. I owe you more than I can ever repay._ _

__"All of you have been the best friends I could ever ask for. You've forgiven me time after time, even when I didn't deserve it. I'm asking you to forgive me one last time, for doing this, because I can't stand the idea of you being mad at me even after I'm-"_ _

__Tsubaki broke into sobs. Black Star grabbed her hand and squeezed. He took the letter and picked up where she'd left off._ _

__"Even after I'm dead._ _

__"I tried to kill my mother. I don't regret it, not in the least. But the witches' punishment for killing your mother is dreadful. I can't handle it. I know they're coming for me. They won't let matricide go unpunished even if it was Medusa._ _

__"After what I did to Stein and Miss Marie, after I betrayed all of you, I don't know how to handle this. I can't keep going knowing that I'll keep making the same mistakes. Ragnarok grows stronger every day, and soon I won't be able to control him. I'll never be able to make up for what I did._ _

__"You gave me the best months of my life. I wish it didn't have to end so soon, but it is what it is._ _

__"I love you all, Crona."_ _


	7. The Fight Against Stein: Will They Regain Their Senses?

They went to class. They did their work. They ate. They slept. They didn't talk to anybody unless they absolutely had to. They didn't know how to handle Crona's death, so they avoided it.

The Monday after Crona killed himself, Lord Death held an assembly to announce it to the school. As they were walking out, Maka heard one boy say, "I heard he killed himself."

"Witch spawn like him didn't belong here, anyway," someone else said, and Maka's long-dormant rage ignited. She turned with a shriek and punched the boy who'd said that. He staggered back, and she swung again, blind with anger. He tried to punch back, but she was too well-trained and too angry. She blocked and broke something on her next hit. He went down, and she followed, still slapping and punching and elbowing and _hitting_ , she wanted to make him _hurt_ -

Strong arms pulled her off him. She screamed, "Let me go let me go let me go," and fought to get free. She was carried through the hallways, kicking all the way, until rational thought started to return and she recognized the smell of the man holding her.

"Papa," she said, and burst into tears.  
***  
"Holy _shit_ ," Black Star said. "Have you ever seen her do _that_ before?"

They were sitting in Stein's classroom, waiting for Soul Studies to start. They hadn't seen Maka since Death Scythe had carried her off somewhere. The boy Maka had attacked was in the infirmary. They'd stayed where they were until Sid had yelled at them all to get to class.

"No," Tsubaki said. "Never. What set her off?"

"They were saying Crona didn't belong here," Liz said. "I was about to hit them myself."

"Yeah, but Maka lost it," Patti said.

Ox leaned in. "What was that about?" he asked.

"He insulted Crona," Kid said. "During his _funeral._ "

"Huh. Good for her, then," Ox said, and turned back around in his seat.

Stein's entrance brought all talking to a halt. "Good afternoon, everyone," he said. "Today we're going to work on the mathematics behind resonance."

Quiet groans echoed through the room. This was everyone's _least_ favorite topic.

Maka slipped into the classroom between classes. Stein eyed her in the way that meant he was looking at her soul, but Maka ignored it, climbing to her seat instead.

"Saturday detentions for a month," she said without prompting.

Black Star blinked. "That's more than I ever got."

"A two-star meister attacking a one-star meister is grounds for expulsion," Maka said. "Lord Death took the circumstances into account."

Tsubaki's soul touched hers. "It'll be okay," she said. "Miss Marie takes Saturday detentions."

Stein cleared his throat, bringing their conversations to a halt. "So," he said. "Today we're going to see how well you're coming along with the mid-move change."  
***  
Soul was asleep when Maka slipped into the infirmary. He'd been sleeping a lot, the medicine and the infection taking a lot of his energy, and Maka had spent a lot of time between and after classes just sitting there, staring at him, hating him for not telling her the wound was infected almost as much as she hated herself for not noticing.

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, it was with the added dimension of Soul Perception. Soul's was rippling blue and green over him, peaceful in sleep, and the angry red of the infection had dimmed. In the distance she could sense the witches' caravan on their way to Death City.

"They'll be here next week," she whispered.

"They will."

She scrambled up, losing Perception in her surprise. "Professor Stein!"

"Hello, Maka." He smiled at her, one of the smiles he used automatically that didn't reach his eyes. "What are you doing here so early on a Saturday?"

"I have detention," she muttered.

"Ah," he said, like that settled it. "You should be on your way, then. I have a few patients to see today."

"Okay," she said, and turned to leave.

The door opened before she could get to it. "Stein?" her father called.

"Papa," she said in surprise. "What are you-?"

"Oh. Hello, Maka." He tried to smile.

"In here, Spirit," Stein said, gesturing to the small room attached to the infirmary.

It clicked. "You're _hurt?_ " she said, concern overriding everything else. "What happened?"

"I'm not quite recovered from the battle with Asura," he said. He ruffled her hair on his way past. "I'll see you later, all right?"

"Yeah, okay," she said, but she didn't move until the door closed behind them.

She made it to Miss Marie's office with a minute to spare. "Maka!" she said warmly. "Come on in. Would you like tea?"

"No, thank you," she muttered.

"All right, then. Close the door, please."

Maka did as she was told and sat in one of the chairs across from Miss Marie. When she was settled, Miss Marie said, "So. This isn't really detention."

"It's not?" Maka blurted.

"No. You know that I can heal people, right?" Maka nodded. "One of the ways I do that is by talking to them. That's what this is, us talking and you healing."

"Healing from what?" Miss Marie tapped her temple. "I'm not crazy!"

"I never said you were. But you've been through a lot. I've been trying to convince Lord Death to let me get all of you in here, but he's been resistant." She made a face. "Seems to think talking about it will make it worse. Your fight this week convinced him, at least with you."

"I don't need to be healed!"

Miss Marie quirked an eyebrow. "Maka. You've got bags under your eyes, which means you're not sleeping much. You've been losing your temper. Your mother left again, which I know had to hurt. You lost a good friend. You fought the Kishin Asura, who defeated Lord Death - don't even _try_ to tell me you haven't been having nightmares about that, or the battle with Medusa. _I've_ been having nightmares about the battle with Medusa. Your grades are slipping, you've been losing your temper, you've withdrawn, and you're being affectionate toward your father. You're not crazy, but you do need to talk to someone."

Maka looked down. Put like that, it was hard to argue. "Talk about what?"

"Let's start easy. How do you feel about your father?"

Maka snorted. "That's supposed to be the _easy_ question?"

She was released three hours later, after Miss Marie had showed her a few ways to keep herself calm.

Soul was released on Monday and rejoined them in time for Soul Studies. Maka thumped him on the head for not telling them his wound was getting infected.

"The witches will be here on Wednesday," Stein announced. "That gives us all enough time to talk about what makes witches' souls different from regular human souls, and what makes regular human souls different from weapons' or meisters' souls. "

On Wednesday, Justin pulled Soul out of gym along with Maka. "You've learned hand-to-hand," he said. "Now it's time to learn to fight with Soul and blades together."

At the end of an hour getting dumped on her butt and bruising her ribs, Maka scowled. "I thought I was getting better," she grumbled.

"You are," Justin said. "It takes time to learn a new skill. Be patient."

"Maka? Patient?" Soul joked.

Justin raised his eyebrows. "Patience is a skill."

Soul exploded into laughter. Maka stomped off.

At lunch, Death Scythe appeared. It was a rare enough occurrence the cafeteria quieted almost immediately. "The witches have arrived," he announced. "I'll be showing them through the school this afternoon, so please be on your best behavior. I'm sure I don't need to tell you all how important it is that they respect us.

"They have brought a few teenagers along. They will be mixing in with your classes while they're here. Friendly is best, but if you can't manage that, at least be polite." His eyes bored into Maka. "Remember, no fighting without teacher supervision. No fighting our guests at all. Thank you for your attention."

As soon as he left, whispers broke out. Soul scowled at his plate. "They brought witches here? To _join_ us?"

"It can't be that bad," Tsubaki said, but she didn't look convinced.

The teenagers joined them the next morning. Maka and Soul were working with Justin, so they weren't there, but everyone else had ample opportunity to observe.

They'd dressed for gym in shorts and T-shirts, though they looked awkward and uncomfortable. They were far slower than the actual students, though still faster than normal humans. Sid had them play baseball and split up the teams himself, putting three witches in each group. Black Star and Tsubaki's team won over Kid, Liz, and Patti's. The witches on both teams were put in the spaces between bases, where almost no balls went.

When Maka and Soul rejoined them, Maka's first question was, "How are they?"

"Eh." Liz shrugged. "Seem okay enough."

"They're witches," Black Star said scornfully.

"And Mifune's a samurai who kicked your ass," Liz shot back.

Black Star spluttered, flailing for words, and finally settled on a defiant, "So?"

"So," Liz said, "just because they're different doesn't mean they're bad. Lord Death wouldn't have allowed it if they were going to be trouble."

"But they're _witches!_ " Maka said. "Look what they did to Crona!"

" _One_ witch did that to Crona," Kid said. "That's like saying all humans hurt people based on the Kishin eggs."

"Whose side are you on?"

"My father's," he said matter-of-factly. "If I'd trusted him earlier, we could have gotten to Arachnophobia sooner. Whose side are _you_ on?"

Maka scowled.

Classes continued on as normal. The witches kept to themselves, sitting and eating together. On Thursday, Death Scythe approached his top combat students with a proposal, and all agreed.

Friday afternoon, classes were cancelled. Instead, everyone filed into the gymnasium, most speculating about why they were there.

Death Scythe stood in front of them and raised his hands for quiet. When enough people had stopped talking that he could be heard, he called, "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! Today, we have a special treat for you, put on by some of the EAT class. We're going to have a few fighting exhibitions." Cheers greeted this pronouncement. He waited for them to die down again. "We have seven fights lined up. If this isn't something you're interested in, you can leave any time between fights. Just not during them, please, we don't want you getting hurt.

"Without further ado, please welcome Death the Kid, wielding Liz and Patti, and Ox, wielding Harvar!"

Kid and Ox walked into the gym from opposite sides, weapons already in hand. They shook hands, then moved back to the free-throw lines. Death Scythe counted down from three and got out of the way.

Both Kid and Ox used distance weapons, so it really came down to aim and dodging. Both had good aim, but both were also good at dodging, so it was a relatively fair fight. Both went for resonance at the same time, and only the fact that Kid, Liz, and Patti were faster than Ox and Harvar at resonating let them knock Ox unconscious.

They helped Harvar carry Ox out to the cots in the hallway set up for that express purpose, then returned to watch the next fight: Kilik, Fire, and Thunder against Kim and Jacqueline. Fire and Thunder had both distance and close-quarters attacks, but Jacqueline's flamethrower kept Kilik too far back to punch. It was a close fight, but in the end, Kim won by throwing so much fire Kilik couldn't see her coming through the flames to punch him in the face.

Once Kilik had been carted off, it was Black Star and Tsubaki's turn to fight Joe and Tsinada, a knife pair. Joe and Tsinada immediately started resonating, but Black Star forewent that in favor of running straight toward them and kicking Joe between the legs. He dropped, and Black Star grabbed Tsinada's hilt, making him the victor.

Tsinada changed back and glared at him. "That wasn't what you were supposed to do."

"I was supposed to win," Black Star retorted. "Not my fault you two forgot how to guard."

"Problem?" Death Scythe asked.

"That wasn't fair!" Tsinada snapped. "We were supposed to use our weapons!"

Death Scythe raised an eyebrow. "Your legs aren't weapons?"

Still glaring at them, Tsinada dragged a grey Joe off the court.

Once everyone was off, Maka and Soul stepped out to fight Forrest and Yolanda, another scythe pair. They ran at each other, Soul and Maka resonating as they went. The scythes clashed and held together. Forrest bore down, trying to make Maka fall over from his superior size and weight. Instead, Maka concentrated and whispered, "Witch Hunter."

Soul exploded, tripling in size and sending Forrest and Yolanda flying back. Forrest landed in a crouch, Yolanda held by his side. Soul rippled back to normal.

Yolanda burst into Witch Hunter. Forrest ran forward, swinging hard, and Maka and Soul grinned, two halves of the same whole, because they knew exactly how he was going to swing - crescent moon, and then figure-6. Maka ran towards him, slid under the crescent moon, and jerked his legs out from under him. Forrest fell forward, and Maka put a foot on his back and Soul just beneath his neck.

"I give," he said.

Maka grinned and helped him up. "How'd you know where I'd swing?" he asked her.

"Witch Hunter almost has to start with a crescent moon," she said. "If you're running towards someone, there's nowhere for the blade to go but across."

Forrest pondered that as they walked off the court. "Does everyone know that?" he asked finally.

Maka shook her head. "Witch Hunter's a legendary scythe move, remember? Only someone who's used to giant blades would know."

"Guess we should go join the watchers," he said. Yolanda waved absentmindedly as they left, curling a tendril of hair around her finger.

"Good job, Maka!" Kid said when he saw her.

"You too, Kid," she said, grinning at him. "And you, Liz and Patti."

"We're fighting Black Star and Tsubaki next," Kid said. "I should get in there."

"Good luck," Maka said.

Black Star had his shirt up over his mouth, which Kid knew meant he was taking this fight seriously. He mentally prepared himself and warned Liz and Patti, who both rolled their eyes at him - _of course he is, he hasn't beat you yet_ , Liz whispered in his mind.

As soon as Death Scythe hit one, Black Star raised Tsubaki's Enchanted Sword form in front of him. He disappeared in a blur of shadow, too fast for any human to see him. Kid wasn't human, though; he was a Reaper, and Black Star was clear as day. His pattern was symmetrical, moving back and forth across the floor, and Kid shot at where he was going to be.

Black Star fell on his butt and glared at Kid as he got up. "Seriously?" he snapped.

"Seriously," Kid said, and shot again. Tsubaki deflected it even as they shimmered back into Shadow Star and disappeared behind the bleachers. Even a Reaper couldn't see through solid objects, but Black Star had to be up close and personal for any of his attacks, so Kid fell back and waited for him to come out.

He came at Kid from the other side of the bleachers, Tsubaki in her kusarigama form. Kid shot, but Black Star dodged rather than deflected. One of the blades came flying at his left side, and he rolled right to avoid it.

Black Star had expected that. He was waiting to clap both his hands over Kid's ears and send him to the floor.

The image of Black Star in front of them evaporated, leaving Tsubaki standing there. She smiled at Black Star, who grinned back and pulled Kid over a shoulder to carry him off.

The next match was Maka and Soul against Kim and Jacqueline. They again tried to use flames to mask Kim's approach, but Maka knew it was coming and blinked into Soul Perception. She tracked Kim's path through the flames and had Soul waiting to catch her and fling her across the room. Kim hit the wall and fell, unconscious. Jacqueline carried her off, ignoring Maka's and Soul's offers of help.

Then it was time for Maka and Soul against Black Star and Tsubaki. Of all the fights she'd had today, Maka was most worried about this one. Black Star walked out onto the floor just as cocky and balanced as he had been when the exhibition had begun, Tsubaki shining just as bright. Maka could barely stand straight, and Soul had some pretty nasty kinks in his back from so many transformations and long patches of time in weapon form. Neither of the others seemed at all fazed. _We should work on our stamina,_ Maka thought at Soul as they settled into the traditional fighting stance.

 _No shit_ , he thought back. Exhaustion tinged his mental voice. _Wanna just go straight for Kishin Hunter and end this?_

 _We've only managed that once,_ she reminded him.

_Genie Hunter, then. He won't be expecting a straight attack, we usually play defense for a few minutes first._

_Fine._

When Death Scythe reached one, Maka ran straight at Black Star, Soul held out to her side. Black Star somersaulted over them, but Maka had expected that, and was already turning, forcing her soul into Soul through her hands so he would grow, and Genie Hunter slammed into being and was abruptly stopped by Tsubaki, who had changed into Enchanted Sword while they weren't looking.

They didn't have any time to adjust before Black Star pulled Tsubaki down to the ground with him and threw one of the kusarigama blades at her feet. Maka went down hard, the impact creating bruises all up and down her back, but she still kept Soul up to guard against whatever Black Star's next attack would be.

It didn't come where she expected it to, down on her chest or neck like a Kishin egg would be. Instead she felt a sharp bite in her hip and couldn't prevent a yelp of pain as she brought the butt of Soul's scythe into where Tsubaki should have been, but Tsubaki was already gone, and the flare in Maka's hip told her she'd lost this one.

"I give," she said, and set Soul on the ground next to her.

Black Star appeared over her, grinning with too many teeth, and she scowled at him. "Help me up," she said.

"Ask nicely," he teased.

"It's your fault I can't get up on my own."

"Fine. _Girls._

Tsubaki smacked the back of his head.

Each of them took two assignments that weekend, even Maka, who had Saturday detention. By Monday morning, Tsubaki was up to thirty-seven souls, Liz and Patti at fifty-three each, and Soul at-

"Ninety-five?" Kid said incredulously. _"Ninety-five?"_

"Yep," Soul said. "Is that cool or what?"

"Four more Kishin eggs and a witch, and you'll be a _Death Weapon?_ " Liz demanded.

"Yep."

"Let's just hope we get a witch instead of a cat this time," Maka said. "I can't handle another Blair in the apartment."

"Do you think Lord Death knew Blair wasn't a witch?" Tsubaki asked.

"Yes," they all chorused.

"I don't know why, though," Maka said. "We were so close!"

"You hadn't Resonated yet, had you?" Kid asked reasonably.

"Well, no," Maka said.

"I saw some of your fights six months ago," Kid said. "You were good, but neither of you were ready for three stars. You'd beat Blair now without breaking a sweat, and last time you nearly died."

Maka opened her mouth to argue, then closed it. Kid's logic was impeccable, and she could admit to herself that he was right.

"We've gotten a lot better," Soul agreed.

"At least you know it," Stein's voice said from behind them. There was just a faint tinge of amusement in it, the equivalent of full-blown laughter when it came from him, and they spun around. "You're so close," he continued, looking at Soul and Maka through the glare on his glasses. "You might actually be ready this time."

"Might?" Black Star demands. "We destroyed the Kishin!"

"The life of a Death Weapon is difficult." Stein shrugged. "Did you never notice that none of them have a steady relationship? Or steady home? Spirit moves every two months. Azusa, Marie, and Justin go where Death Scythe needs them on whichever continent they're assigned, and sometimes to other continents. All of them fight the worst the world has to offer.

"The question isn't whether you can _become_ a Death Weapon. It's whether you'll _stay_ one. Think about it, now you can understand. It's not lack of skill that makes them rare."

Stein disappeared before any of them could muster up an answer. They were still staring at where he'd been when the bell rang, signaling the start of gym class. They raced for the door.

Maka was still far outclassed by Justin, but she was getting better, slowly closing the gap between their skill levels. It was frustrating to be fighting someone so much better than she was, but satisfying in that she could see her own improvement.

Death Scythe was sitting on Stein's desk when they reached his classroom for Battle Studies. He and Stein were talking, voices low, and Death Scythe had his head tilted so that his red hair hid his face. Maka's instinctive reaction was disgust, emotion engrained over long years of hating her father, but she forced that down. If her papa was here, it was probably because he had to talk to Stein about the injury he'd gotten fighting the Kishin.

That assumption was proven wrong almost as soon as class began. Stein jerked himself straight at the bell and turned the screw on his head until it clicked in a way he apparently found satisfying.

"Pop quiz!" he announced. "Your first day in Battle Studies, you and your partner fought your teacher. Today you'll be doing the same in your groups. Split up and be ready to fight."

"Is he _serious?_ " Soul breathed. He could still remember the last time they'd fought Stein, the first night they'd ever met him, the rising horror and fear and pain. It was the first night he and Maka had resonated, in the graveyard fighting a zombified Sid in what turned out to be fights orchestrated by Lord Death. If Stein had actually been _trying_ , only Kid, Liz, and Patti - who hadn't been there at all - would have survived to see Asura revived.

"Completely serious, Soul," Death Scythe said, his mouth twitching in amusement. "You should be able to last five minutes against us by now."

"Against _you?_ " Jacqueline asked.

"You're a Death Scythe!" Kim said.

"And with Stein wielding you…" Ox trailed off.

"Exactly!" Stein said. "It wouldn't be much of a quiz if it was easy, would it? Kilik's group, you're up."

Kilik's group lasted seven and a half minutes. Frank's group lasted four minutes and thirty-three seconds. Nobaki's managed six minutes, Jill's three, Lina's five.

"And finally," Stein said, turning to face them, "Maka's group."

"We're beating Papa," Maka said, voice a low growl.

"We beat a Kishin, we can handle them," Black Star agreed.

"We got this," Soul added. The passive resonance they shared even with the weapons in human form, that slight knowledge of other souls in their minds, grew stronger when they faced off against the adults. The moment Stein counted down to one, they shoved their souls together.

Stein was already moving, rushing towards them with the scythe extended to his side, and Maka knew his next move like she knew her own name. _Attack!_ she ordered the rest of the group, and drew Soul up in a figure-9 to counter Stein's figure-6. She kicked out, aiming to hit his groin with her shin, but he broke and danced back, turning to deflect Tsubaki's kusarigama blade with the shaft and Kid's soul bullets with the blade. Maka lunged forward, aiming to hook Soul around her father's shaft and pull him down and away, but Stein was stronger than she expected and pulled her forward the moment Soul hooked around Death Scythe. His free hand connected with her chest and she went flying back, electricity crackling in her sternum.

 _Maka!_ six voices yelled in her head.

 _Keep going,_ she snarled back. _I'm all right._

She used Soul to level herself to her feet. Tsubaki shimmered into Enchanted Sword while Kid kept Stein busy deflecting Liz and Patti's soul bursts. Black Star and Tsubaki connected more solidly than they already were, and suddenly the shadows in the room became weapons. Kid, Liz, and Patti connected more, and they grew into arm-length blasters. Maka and Soul focused, but they held off on Genie Hunter - Death Scythe and Shun had invented the move, Stein would surely know a counter, and besides, the blade became so big Maka's body was entirely unprotected. Instead, they poured more of themselves into the group Resonance, until Maka was Soul was Tsubaki was Black Star was Kid was Liz was Patti was Maka again. The feedback was incredible.

"Impressive," Stein said.

His tone was mocking, as the Kishin's had been when they'd fought him, and none of them knew who thought it first but they thought it together: they'd never escaped the Kishin. He'd put them in a hallucination while he slept, and now he was ready for round two.

An overpowered enemy versus seven students. It was laughable, really, how they'd thought they could beat him, how they'd believed they _had_ beaten him.

Now that they knew, they could see clearly: Stein's three eyes, Death Scythe's black-metal blade dripping with blood, the classroom made of Arachnophobia's destroyed castle. They all screamed.

Stein, for his part, was totally unprepared for the screaming. All of them attacked at once, three parts of a whole, and he could _see_ their souls turning red with madness but he didn't know why or how to stop it. _Spirit,_ he whispered.

 _I see it._ Spirit's voice was tense. _What happened?_

Stein wished he had a hand free to turn the screw in his head, to shake the thoughts and memories, to bring him back down to level, to generate new ideas and discard old ones. _I have no idea,_ he had to admit, and then he yelled, "Someone get Marie in here, _now!_ " because her healing wavelength was their best bet at getting everyone out of here alive. Stein knew _exactly_ how dangerous mad meisters were when they were Resonating, and these seven had taken down a Kishin less than a month earlier.

That was it. _They think we're Asura,_ he told Spirit.

 _Fantastic,_ he grumbled. _My daughter's trying to kill us._

_That surprises you?_

Stein's body had been on autopilot, blocking what was coming at him, but now he tuned back in to the fight. The students had scattered; there were scorch marks on the seats where they'd been. He had a moment to hate himself for forgetting to deflect away from them, but only a moment. He tuned back in to the wavelength of their souls, finding the right frequency for Kid's blasts to be forceful but not damaging.

Maka charged at him, Soul held out to her side. For a second, Stein forgot about Black Star and Tsubaki, forgot about even Spirit in his mind, and just _stared_ , because it was _beautiful_. Soul had been changed into a perfect tool of destruction, Genie Hunter with black blood running through, ready to destroy anything good it touched, and on the other side Maka's arm was a regular Genie Hunter that would destroy anything evil.

His distraction cost him. Black Star came in from the side, and he saw it too late to do anything but twist to take the blow across his back instead of through his ribs. Wet warmth dripped down - it would scar, he knew without even looking, and right now he didn't have the extra focus he needed to stitch it up, so he'd just have to not slip in the blood that was starting to pool around his feet, not let himself give in to the pain of torn skin and muscle and artery and vein, not let himself get killed by three mad students.

Maka was upon him suddenly, and he ducked and caught her with the shaft of Spirit, and he forced their combined souls down and into her abdomen and she flew back, Soul reverting to his normal scythe form before they even landed and clattering to the floor.

Marie, Azusa, and Justin burst in, Sid and Naigus behind them, and Stein barked, "Resonate!" before they were even in the door. He'd Resonated with all of them before, but they'd never all come together, butand it was a testament to his reputation that they didn't even hesitate before they were shoving their souls at him and trusting him to mesh them together.

They weren't compatible at _all._ Sid was in the fight now, keeping Black Star occupied. Maka and Kid were both still coming for Stein, and when the _fuck_ had the stripes on the right side of Kid's head gone all the way around? Justin jumped in, neatly diverting Maka, and Stein could _feel_ his surprise.

He had to separate them, then. He grabbed Marie's and Azusa's souls, so compatible even though they were so different, and shoved the Resonance back at them, flashing a plan into their heads faster than even light could travel. They leapt to the top of the room.

Sid, Naigus, and Justin were all fairly compatible, and Stein split his mind in half so he could Resonate with the three of them as well as with Spirit and with Azusa and Marie. He'd never even _tried_ three groups before; doing it with two had landed him in bed for a week, and he honestly wasn't even sure if it was possible, but with Spirit in his head and hands there wasn't _anything_ they couldn't do.

It worked, but Stein felt like he was being split apart, too many other voices in too many different and disparate parts of his head, he hadn't been this far gone from himself since he was a _child_ , since he'd put a damn _screw_ through his own _head_ , and the only thing he wanted more than to shove everyone out was to finish this fight.

He lost it. The connections he had to the others dissolved, and he fell back, blood loss and mental strain swamping him until his vision went black.

Marie and Azusa felt him evaporate from their heads a moment before he fell, and two weapons couldn't resonate together without a meister, that just didn't _work._ Their connection left along with Stein.

Marie jumped down into the fray, turning her hands into hammers as she went. Her first focus was Kid, who had distance weapons and was being distracted by Azusa, now, who was jumping around and being hard to hit and throwing things that hit him in the head every time. She came up from behind and clobbered him, pushing every bit of her healing wavelength through him, and she was in, her soul merging with the students', and oh _gods_ this was _awful_ , misery and pain and fear and madness, Stein's head was the only thing she'd ever _felt_ like this before, how had she missed this when she'd talked to Maka?

She shoved her wavelength out, enveloping theirs, and pushed sanity in through the cracks. The madness fought, but she fought back, shoving it down and out until Soul with the black blood was the last holdout, and now Maka was going in deep, her wavelength almost entirely subsumed by his, and then they popped out, madness contained.

Resonance evaporated. Marie came back to herself _hard_ , so dizzy she sat where she stood, and laid back and breathed in counts of ten until she could see again.


	8. The Witch! Will Soul Become a Death Scythe?

Stein remained in the infirmary for almost two weeks. Death Scythe was right next to him - Naigus said something about mental strain and attempting the impossible. Marie met with all seven of them at once to hear what _they_ thought happened, and then reported to Lord Death. The seven of them expected some kind of consequence, but there was nothing disciplinary, even if Marie did look sad whenever she saw them - which was often, because she was busy building up the wall between the Kishin's leftover madness, the black blood madness, and their selves. They were declared safe for missions the same day Stein and Death Scythe were released, though Marie told them her walls weren't strong enough to stand up to the seven of them resonating and falling into the same madness that had taken them during class. They weren't allowed to work as a team again at least until they had a chance to settle into place.

A week after that, Maka and Soul took a mission against multiple Kishin eggs and hit ninety-nine souls. Lord Death summoned them almost as soon as they got back and sent them out to New Mandei, a large city in the north with so many people and so much activity the center of the city was usually about ten degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside. A witch had been using herbal remedies as a front for experimenting on people, most of whom had died.

Latiffe was easy to find: she had a storefront. Soul and Maka waited until she locked up and followed her home - witches hated being surrounded by normal humans, so they were betting she lived outside the city, where fewer people were around. The gamble paid off: she left the city and headed south, toward a smaller town. Soul and Maka blended into the shadows and confronted her half a mile from either settlement.

"Latiffe!" Maka called, the ritual words flowing easily. "For experimenting on humans, you have been sentenced to death. I am here to collect your soul."

Latiffe's eyes narrowed at them. "Here from the Academy, then?" she asked. "I've been expecting you for months, now."

It was more difficult for the two of them to resonate than they'd expected. Before the fight with Stein, it had been easy as breathing, an automatic fitting of puzzle pieces. Now, though, it was almost as difficult as the first time had been. _Marie's walls_ , Soul thought when they finally stabilized.

Latiffe was still watching them. "Interesting," she said. "There's patches there, a soul that's not yours."

Maka blinked into Soul Perception. Latiffe's Soul Protect was on, and until it was off, she couldn't use magic. Eight months ago, Maka would have goaded her into fighting until her blood warmed, but now she knew better. She was more cautious. She took a step and pushed some of her soul toward Soul, who passed it back, and they were tossing it between them like it was a basketball with every step until it was large enough that Maka could point Soul at the witch, who laughed and said, "You think a tiny scythe like that will stop me?"

"No," Maka said, and passed her soul back for the final time. "Genie Hunter," she said, and Soul's blade became a dazzling array of pinks and purples and blues and the witch leapt backwards too slowly to escape all of Soul's too-large blade.

She looked at her bleeding arm. "One cut," she scoffed.

Maka smiled. "Wait."

Latiffe blinked, confused, and then screamed as her body began to unravel from the cut outward. Soul was back in his human form before she finished disintegrating, staring at her purple soul like he'd never seen one before. It pulsed gently in the night.

"This is it," Maka said. "You'll be a Death Scythe after this."

"You get the feeling this was too easy?" Soul asked.

"I'm not complaining, are you?"

"No," he said, and took the soul in his hands.

Maka hadn't yet let go of Soul Perception, and that was the only thing that saved them. A dozen souls appeared in the air, flying towards them from a mile away, and she said, "Shit. This was a trap, there's more coming, eat it _now!_ "

Soul responded to the panic in her voice, swallowing the soul without stopping to savor it. For a moment, nothing happened, and he was about to transform back into a scythe when light poured out of his eyes and nose and ears and mouth, dripping to the ground like honey and slowly climbing back up his legs.

Maka saw the purple bolt coming towards Soul's back and leapt to deflect it, her arms changing into her own blades, and the witches laughed when they landed ten yards from them and dropped their Soul Protects. It was night, and the moon was just a sliver of a grin and a drop of blood in the sky, but Soul was lighting up the area like the laughing sun and Maka could see all four of them in a line, and she could see their souls, smaller than Medusa's had been but larger than Latiffe's, and she knew that they were in very big trouble.

The light behind her flared and went out. For a moment she was light-blind, her night vision gone, and then her eyes started to adjust and she saw the witches forming a circle.

 _Circle magic,_ Stein's voice said in her head. _Similar to Soul Resonance in that it amplifies power._

She could feel Soul in the back of her head, still. He transformed and she caught him, but she was unprepared for the weight and nearly dropped him. She took her eyes off the witches for barely a second to refamiliarize herself with her weapon.

Soul was a gleaming blood-red all the way across the blade now, with the pattern that had been on his blade now on his shaft. His eyes were black now instead of white. The edge was a gleaming sharpness he'd never had before.

The biggest difference, though, was the size. He was easily twice as tall and three times as long as he had been just ten minutes before. It threw off the center of balance, and Soul was the same but his body was _different_ and if she didn't adjust within ten seconds they were both going to die.

 _Relax,_ Soul ordered her. _I'm a Death Scythe now. We can handle a couple witches._ His words were confident, but his mental voice gave away the lie: Soul was fucking _terrified._

 _Of course we can,_ Maka thought back, just as afraid and just as willing to ignore it in favor of psyching them both up. _We destroyed a Kishin and you're a Death Scythe. We can deal with them._ Aloud, she said, "Genie Hunter," and for the second time that night Soul grew and became pink and purple and blue, his shape changing into a full crescent, and Maka threw herself into the air to avoid the blue-white whip coming at her and somersaulted around until she was leading down with her foot.

Her kick connected solidly with a witch's nose. She swung Soul around and hit two of the witches, who dissolved. She launched off the first one's face just as the one still standing threw fire at her.

She landed ten feet away from them and turned smoothly, keeping Soul up between them. They knew, now, that just touching him would kill them, and they'd be ready for it.

 _Angry people make mistakes,_ Stein's voice offered, and Maka yelled out, “Two down already? How pathetic!" even as her mind skipped ahead to how she and Soul were going to able to destroy the remaining two on their own. It was going to take a lot of luck.

 

A nasty bolt of electric magic hit Soul in the very center, and the pain passed through to Maka. That was the way they worked, sharing the hits, sharing the pain, sharing the weight. "That the best you got?" she yelled at them.

She felt something rising up at her back. With Soul at her front, she twisted to look, and barely dodged as a giant made of dirt and grass slammed a fist where she'd been standing. A rock cut her cheek. Genie Hunter evaporated, and she twirled Soul in a figure-8 to keep them back and offer some protection until the dust settled and she could see again.

A purple streak hit her left arm, and Maka spun around. She went with the momentum and stayed on her feet, but just barely. Her arm dangled uselessly beside her; she couldn't even feel it, much less move it, and she threw herself into the air to get out of the dust so she could see properly again. _Stupid!_ she chided herself. _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

 _Maka?_ Soul asked warily. _Maybe we should retreat._

 _They're not going to let us go,_ she shot back. _We're too far from cover to sneak away._

_So what's the plan?_

_Survive._ She swung him up to deflect the next rain of magical blows. _You come up with a better one, you let me know._

She had no idea how long she played defense, no idea how long she avoided the monster and deflected the magic, but it was long enough to start to tire her and long enough to frustrate the witches and long enough for their attacks to start losing power. Long enough for her to forget what it was like to exist without Soul inside her mind and sharing her thoughts and communicating instantly. Long enough for the dirt monster to collapse under the weight of the spellcaster's exhaustion. Long enough for her left arm to start aching, which was only a small improvement over the numbness.

That gave her hope that they might actually win. _Those spells have to use a lot of energy,_ she thought. _Maybe they'll get tired before we do._

 _Maybe the sun will rise in the west,_ Soul said.

 _Not helpful,_ Maka snapped back.

 _Sor-ry,_ he said, drawing out the word into an insult, but he fell silent, his attention returning to the battle.

And it _was_ a battle, but at least he and Maka were both still alive. He couldn't understand how; by rights they both should have died a while ago, but instead two witches were dead, two were swaying with exhaustion, and they were both alive and breathing and relatively okay.

Soul narrowed in on the the one who looked more tired. _Next target,_ he said. _It's time to go offense._

 _Sure about that?_ Maka asked even as she readied herself. They both felt the exhaustion in her bones, sped by wielding a Soul heavier than he had been before he ate Latiffe's soul. Soul was tired, but not yet out of energy.

 _Go,_ Soul said, and by the time Maka landed from her leap he was in Genie Hunter and she swung him around and caught the witch square in the middle with the blade, ripping her in two. Then she was leaping away again before the reaction delay ran out, and it was back to defense.

 _One left,_ Soul thought.

A green shot slipped past Soul and caught Maka's leg. It went out from under her, shattered into pieces, and she screamed high and sharp as she fell. Soul grabbed as much of the pain as he could stand to take, but it was too much, they'd both broken bones before but her shin was _pulverized._

 _Transform!_ Soul barked.

 _What?_ Maka's mental voice was hazy with pain and the beginnings of unconsciousness.

Soul swung his blade down to block another green shot, aimed at Maka's head. _Turn your leg into a blade,_ he said. _You won't feel as much pain._

Maka groaned, and Soul pushed, and her leg became blue-black steel. The pain didn't vanish, but it did lessen.

 _Get to your feet,_ Soul ordere. _She’s doing something nasty._

 _When are they not?_ Maka retorted, but she used Soul to lever herself to her feet and went back to defense.

By the time fifteen people in Death uniforms appeared, both Maka and Soul were bruised and battered and broken and so tired they couldn't muster up any surprise or gratitude at all, just a weary gladness the fight was over. Muscles screaming, Maka sank to the ground and watched as the last witch was killed.

Soul transformed back into human form as soon as the last witch dissolved. He fell down next to her, looking as tired as she felt. "Let's not do that again," he said.

"Agreed."

One of the uniformed troops approached them. "We came as soon as we got Lord Death's message," she said. "Are either of you hurt?"

"My leg," Maka said.

The woman looked down. "Um."

"Oh. Right." Maka braced herself for the pain to return in full force and made her leg reform.

It was worse than she'd expected, worse than she'd remembered, and she didn't tell herself to reach for Soul but that's what she did, grabbing his arm hard enough to bruise and biting her lip until it bled so she didn't scream.

"Well," the woman said, "that's gonna be hard to deal with. Let's get you two back to the compound."

Maka made her leg back into a blade, and Soul pulled her up and got an arm around his shoulder to take some of her weight, and with both of those things happening Maka could almost convince herself she'd be fine with some rest. But only almost - she'd seen someone get trampled by a horse once, and he'd lost his leg. She didn't want to become useless when she'd just managed to make a Death Weapon.

That thought brought a smile to her face. "Hey Soul," she said.

"Yeah?"

"You're a Death Scythe now."

He grinned. "Yeah. I guess I am."


	9. Lost and Gone Forever: How Will Maka Manage?

Maka and Soul both slept on the plane back to the Academy. The doctor at the compound had wanted to amputate Maka's leg, but she'd refused, swearing up and down Stein would have something up his sleeve - he'd put a screw through his own head, the man could figure out how to save a leg - and eventually he'd given in. The woman who'd first talked to them informed them that was probably because he couldn't handle surgery and knew he probably would have killed her. Whether or not that was true, Maka's leg was in a cast, and so she and Soul were the first to disembark.

Death Scythe was waiting for them. He took one look at Maka's casted leg and grabbed her into a hug that pulled her up off the ground. He filled the drive back to Death City with meaningless chatter. Halfway there, Soul checked his watch and pulled a prescription bottle out of Maka's bag. She made a face at him when he held it out to her pointedly, but dry-swallowed two of the pills anyway.

Soul and Death Scythe half-carried her up the two hundred steps to the Academy doors. It was humiliating, particularly when the students turned to watch, but Maka didn't have much choice. She couldn't put any weight on her leg at all.

Stein was waiting for them in the infirmary, Naigus nowhere to be seen. He tipped his head down so the glare went off his glasses and said, "Congratulations, Soul and Maka."

"Thanks," they mumbled.

"Maka, go ahead and lay down," Stein continued. "I'm going to need to get that cast off so I can see what I'm working with here."

Soul and Death Scythe helped themselves to the rolling chairs that dominated the infirmary. Stein sawed off the cast quickly and efficiently, which meant that it was off in just under ten minutes. He unwrapped the bandages from her leg, and his face went flat.

"This is a lot of damage," he said. "What happened?"

"I couldn't block everything," Maka said. "Something green hit me."

"Green?" Stein repeated. "Well, that's not good. Hold still."

He poked and prodded at her bruised and swollen leg, and even with the painkillers fresh in her system Maka was fighting back tears with every touch. "Right," Stein announced a few minutes later. "You're going to lose the leg. I'll try to save the knee, but depending on how much damage it took I might not be able to."

Maka went cold. "I'm losing my leg?" she repeated.

Stein nodded. "But! I happen to know how to make prosthetics-"

"What don't you know how to do?" Death Scythe grumbled.

Stein ignored him. "-so once it heals enough you'll be good as new."

"I'm _losing_ my _leg?_ " Maka repeated. "But - there has to be _something_ you can do!"

"I can make you a prosthetic," Stein said. "There's not enough bone left to save, Maka, I'm sorry."

"No," she said. "No, no, no, there has to be _something!_ "

"There's not," Stein said, and his eyes were sympathetic in a way she'd never seen on him before. He was mad, insane, completely devoid of emotion - if he was _pitying_ her, there was no hope left.

She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

Stein made eye contact with Spirit. "You're her parent," he said. "You need to sign some papers to keep everything legal."

Spirit swallowed. "Okay," he said hoarsely, and signed what Stein handed him without reading it.  
***  
Stein looked down at Maka. Spirit's little daughter, not so little anymore, naked on the steel table beneath him. For a breath the world shifted and he was looking at Spirit with a scalpel in his hands.

He turned the screw in his head aggressively, and reality settled back into place. He draped surgical cloth over the top part of her body and turned his attention back towards her leg.

He hadn't been lying, earlier, when he'd said he'd _try_ to save the knee. The bones in her lower leg were completely shattered, and Maka's immune system had already started trying to pick up the dust and carry it away. Her knee was swollen with bone dust inside lymph, and getting it out without destroying the joint was going to be tricky.

He made the first cut, bisecting the knee vertically, and started to work.

Seven hours later, he wheeled Maka back into the infirmary, where her father and friends were waiting. "I saved the knee," he announced, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "She'll be awake in about an hour."

He tuned them out and sat at the computer, pulling up his modeling program. He had quite a few prosthetics on file, and he wanted to take another look and decide which one to use before she woke up.  
***  
Soul splashed water on his face, failure weighing heavy on his shoulders. His job as a weapon was to protect his meister, and he couldn't even do that, even after swallowing the witch's soul and becoming a Death Scythe. Maka had lost her leg and it was _his fault_ for not guarding better, for not seeing it coming, for not _making_ her run, cover be damned. He'd come out of the fight with a few broken ribs, a couple bruises, but he would have happily taken more to protect her. They'd been together for three _years._ She was his best friend and his sister and his self, all rolled into one, and he'd failed her.

"It's not your fault."

The voice from behind him was soft, but he knew it. His eyes flickered up into the mirror over the sink. "Mike?"

"My first meister died," he said. "I blamed myself for a long time. If I'd made her run, or been better or faster or stronger, I was so sure I could have saved her."

Soul turned to face him. Mike's face was scarred from that fight; even as a weapon he'd taken a lot of hits. He'd switched into the NOT class as soon as he got out of the infirmary. "Mike, you couldn't have -"

"I know that now," he said. "But then, right after it happened, I was…lost. I'd failed Julie. We're supposed to protect our meisters, right? Give up our lives for them. We're supposed to be the ones who get hurt, not them. But Soul, things happen. All you can do is keep going. Maka's still alive. She'll get through this." He shoved himself up off the wall of the toilet stall. "Anyway. I'll leave you to it."  
***  
Maka spent two weeks in the infirmary. Naigus shooed out her friends around nine the first night, but after being woken up by Maka's screaming three times, she let them stay with her. Death Scythe was around as often as he could be, looking exhausted and upset, usually bringing books with him so she could occupy herself over the long hours she spent recovering. Soul told her he was being taken out of regular classes and instead spending his days learning about being a Death Weapon.

 

A week after the amputation, her father came in, face drawn. “We know what happened,” he said, not bothering to sit. 

 

They all looked up at him. “What?” Liz asked. 

 

“We know why they ambushed you,” he said. “Some of the witches are angry at the Grandwitch for trying to make peace with us. The witch you were sent after was one of those. Somehow the others found out, and they were going to kill you so that the peace treaties fell through.”

 

“Why didn’t we know before we left?” Soul demanded. 

 

Death Scythe sighed. “Lord Death didn’t think Latiffe would be able to get word to the others.”

 

He left soon after. 

Stein fit her with the prosthetic as soon as she'd healed enough to handle it. Maka had avoided looking at where her leg used to be as long as she could, going so far as to close her eyes whenever she had to use crutches to hobble her way to the bathroom, but when Stein came in, she couldn't avoid looking any longer. There was a burst of vertigo, her subconscious telling her _something_ should exist beyond her knee, but there was _nothing there._

Stein unwound the bandages at the end of her thigh. "This is healing up nicely," he said. "You haven't been playing with it at all, have you?" Maka shook her head. "I didn't think so. These stitches came out, what, four days ago?" She nodded. "Then you should be ready to go."

Stein sat in a chair and opened the black bag at his feet. "Turn to face me," he said, and she did, sitting up on the edge of the bed. Her left leg dangled off the floor.

He pulled out a tube of cloth. "This prevents chafing," he said, pulling it over her knee until there was just a bit of cloth hanging loose. He used a hair tie to close it up. "You can sew it if you'd like, but most people just use whatever they have handy to close it up. It makes it easier to wash."

He pulled a studded metal ring out of the bag. "This is the collar," he continued. "It's what holds the leg on. It fits just over the knee" - he slid it on - "and tightens when you press these buttons and slide them together." He demonstrated. "It loosens the same way. You try."

Maka reached down with shaking hands. She cinched it against her knee, tight enough the skin above the cloth tube turned white.

"Not that far," Stein said, loosening it. "Remember, you're going to be in this all day, so you need it to be comfortable. Try again."

Her next try was a bit too loose, and slid off when she let go. Stein caught it before it hit the floor and held it out for her to try again. The third time she got it close enough for Stein’s satisfaction, apparently, because he pulled out two strips of metal with hinges in the middle.

"These connect to the collar and the leg," he said. "They slide on these studs on either side - see how they're threaded? - and then screw on a wingnut to hold them in place." He showed her on the outside of her leg, then handed her the strip and the wingnut for the inside. This, at least, she could do. Stein gave her a bottle of oil and showed her how to lubricate the joints.

"And, finally, the leg," Stein said, pulling it out of the bag. "It's not going to be perfect just yet, so I'll make adjustments as needed."

Maka stared at it. The leg was smooth metal, ending in a toothed curve at the bottom. "The teeth give you friction," Stein explained. "The hinges fit on here just like they fit on the collar. Go ahead and put it on."

Trembling, Maka hooked the hinges over the leg and screwed it on.

"Is it rubbing anywhere?" Stein asked. "Bend your knee."

Maka did as she was told. The metal leg moved with her, rubbing against the still-healing skin.

Stein talked her through explaining where it was causing friction, and then got her to stand up and try walking. She almost fell over on the first step, her metal leg so much lighter than her real one, but Stein's hand gripping her upper arm kept her upright. By the time they'd done a circuit of the room, Maka's balance was at least a little better.

Stein returned the next day, and the leg fit better. The next day it fit better still. On the fourth day, he leaned back and said, "I think that's as good as it's going to get."

Maka looked down at the metal. "Yeah?"

Stein nodded. "Go ahead and walk some."

She didn't need his support anymore to get around the room. "No pain," she said when she made it back to the bed.

"Good. In that case, I would suggest you shower and join your friends in Soul Studies."

Maka blinked. "What? That's it?"

"That's it," Stein said. "You're free to go. The leg is yours. Try not to get it wet, and if something happens to it or you have any questions, let me know."

Her shower took a while; balancing on one leg on a wet floor was next to impossible. Even with all the practicing she’d had while in the infirmary, she still had to half-lean on the wall for support.

 

She just barely made it to the classroom in time for Soul Studies to start. The room went silent when she walked in. Her first reaction was to blush and look down, but then she took a breath - she had nothing to be ashamed of, and she wasn’t going to make anyone feel like she did. 

 

“Maka,” Sid said brightly. “Good to see you better.”

 

“Thanks,” she said quietly, and started to climb up the stairs.

 

If she valued her pride, she shouldn’t have tried it. She hadn’t yet climbed steps with her fake leg, and it went out from under her when she tried to take the first stair. She hit the ground with a quiet grunt.

 

“Are you okay?” “Oh no!” “What happened?” “What’s wrong?” “Here, let me help-” “Need a hand?”

 

Maka scowled and got herself to her feet. “I’m fine!” she snapped. Still, she didn’t quite feel up to taking the rest of the steps, and settled into the first open chair she saw.

 

Tsubaki’s notes were the only reason she could keep up with Sid’s lecture. They’d moved on to how the environment affected the flow of their souls’ wavelengths, and Maka hadn’t even known that was a _thing_ before she’d gone to collect their final soul. There was a lot she didn’t understand, still, but that was all right. She’d get there.

 

Kid and Liz helped her navigate the stairs outside the DWMA. Soul was still in with Lord Death and Death Scythe, talking about Death Weapon stuff, and so they ended up in Tsubaki’s and Black Star’s apartment. Everyone kept the conversation light, avoiding any mention of Maka’s leg, and the evening flew by. Soul appeared around ten at night and sat next to Maka on the couch until they fell asleep in an exhausted pile.

 

The next morning, Maka’s torture truly began. With Soul now a Death Weapon, and therefore busy, Justin didn’t pull Maka from gym or from combat class. Even with her friends helping her, she fell over a dozen times in gym alone. When they moved to combat, she didn’t fare much better; she hadn’t faced anybody wielding a weapon since Justin had pulled her out to teach her hand-to-hand, and she hadn’t fought at all with her new leg. It was a disaster, and she was so frustrated she was almost in tears by the end of it. After class, she stomped off before any of her friends could get close.

 

She almost went to the cafeteria for lunch, but changed her mind and went to the forest instead. She made her way to a clearing, where she transformed her arms and took her frustrations out on the trees and rocks around her. Every time she fell it just fueled her anger more. By the time she’d exhausted herself, the clearing was in ruins.

 

She trudged back to the Academy, her metal foot clunking with each step. She was barely inside when Soul appeared.

 

“There you are!” he said. “I was just coming to find you.”

 

She crossed her arms. “Why?”

 

He raised his eyebrows. “Well, one, Stein’s _pissed_ that you skipped class. And two, I was worried.”

 

“Worried?” she snapped.

 

“Well, yeah. You skipped class and I could feel how upset you were.” 

 

She tried to smile. “I’m trying.”

 

“I know.” He smiled back, but she could see his sadness. “Liz has the notes from Soul and Battle Studies for you.”

 

“You done for the day?”

 

“I can be.”

 

Her smile turned real. “Pizza?”

 

“Sounds like a plan. See you at home.”


	10. Epilogue: Graduation

Time moved on, and they moved with it. Maka slowly adjusted to life with a prosthetic leg, and was back at the top of her class in next to no time. Kid turned Liz and Patti into Death Weapons. Try as they might, Tsubaki and Black Star couldn’t quite manage to get to their 100 souls before they graduated.

 

The witches’ war raged. Lord Death refused the Grandwitch’s request for backup - he wanted the Academy to remain a neutral party. Besides, he had more important things on his mind, like what the final witch’s soul could be replaced with in order to power up the Death Weapons.

 

The graduation ceremony was simple - they walked across a stage, accepted their diplomas from Sid and Stein, and went back to their seats. Afterwards, they were called in, one by one, to receive their new assignments from Lord Death. For Kid, Liz, and Patti, it was simple: they were to remain and train to take over for Lord Death. Soul, too, was to remain at the Academy to finish his Death Weapon training.

 

Black Star and Tsubaki were sent to join troops in the Far West, where there were odd energy readings coming from the steam vents. Maka was sent to a camp for school groups that Lord Death believed would soon be attacked by a Kishin egg so close to becoming a Kishin it needed just one more human soul.

 

And then - with no more fanfare than that - they were sent on their way. Black Star and Tsubaki were on a plane before dinner; Maka was on a plane of her own by twilight. By the next morning, they were scattered across the world, ready for their next challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plan right now is to have just one more story, again focusing on Maka. No idea when that'll come out.


End file.
